A Different Kind of Spark
by Fifteen1413
Summary: Shizuki Hitomi is a normal thirteen year old girl living in Mitakihara city in Japan. Her world is ordered, constant, and simple; everything she could want from life. So when a visitor from another world shows up without warning and offers to take her away from all that she knew, Hitomi couldn't have been more surprised - except, perhaps, at the fact that she said yes.
1. Chapter the First

Chapter the first, in which Hitomi finds out that magic is indeed real, and accepts her quest.

May 18, 10:34 AM

Hitomi yawned tremendously, shaking her head and covering her mouth almost immediately. She looked around briefly, and was relieved to note that none of the other students seemed to be paying her much mind. She hurriedly turned back to her notes, her eyes flitting momentarily to the board to make sure that she had copied correctly. She was a good student, really; she was just very tired today for some reason, and had been fighting her way through the thin haze in her eyes for most of her morning classes. She found herself about to yawn again, but fought it down. She had to keep herself on track in school; it was the key to a successful future. Every class was important, and every day was vital, assuming she didn't run herself completely into the ground.

The sound of the classroom dropped off suddenly. Hitomi looked up. The teacher was still speaking, but the sound seemed muffled, and much, much quieter than normal. She looked around, her vision brightening slightly and becoming sharper. A flurry of quiet panic rose in her chest for a moment, but she calmed herself quickly. Whatever was happening to her, it would be best faced with as clear and level thought as she could manage.

She wondered briefly if she should ask to see the nurse. It was fairly clear that she was unwell at this point. She really didn't want to be excused for sickness, but she supposed that a dramatic and unprecedented sensory change on the scale which she was currently experiencing was something which should be taken care of, preferably before it became an issue which required serious medical attention.

_"Don't worry, you're fine!"_

Hitomi swiveled her head sharply, looking around for the source of the disturbance.

_"You won't find me like that, you know." _The voice sounded close, female, and kind, but Hitomi struggled to place its direction.

"Who..." Hitomi started.

_"No, no, that won't do." _The voice chided. _"Think it, don't say it. I can hear you like that, sure, but everyone around you will think you've gone crazy."_

_Think it? _Hitomi reflected on the situation. A voice was talking to her, apparently in her head. She should definitely see the nurse.

_"Yes, exactly like that!" _The voice said. _"Just do what you did and it'll work. Telepathy is the simplest thing in the worlds, really, once you get used to it at any rate."_

_"Used... to it?" _Hitomi asked, then chided herself. Do not talk to the voice in your head. See the nurse. Simple.

_"I wouldn't advise that. You're not crazy, and you're not sick. All going to the nurse will do is make it harder for us to talk for a while and pump you full of whatever anti-insanity magic or science you people use for these things. A huge waste of time, effort, and money." _The voice informed her. _"Look, just listen to me. Give me a chance. If I haven't convinced you in five minutes to join me, I'll leave you alone forever and never bother you again, alright?"_

_"Join... you?"_ Hitomi thought, her eyes looking to the clock. Just five minutes. Then, the nurse.

_"Fifty-six days, thirteen hours, twenty-four minutes, twenty-four seconds." _The voice said simply.

_"Until what?" _Hitomi said.

_"Until the world ends." _The voice said. _"Well, my world in particular." _There was a distinct shift in the voice's tone. It wasn't dramatic, but Hitomi could tell very clearly that it was serious. _"It sounds like plenty of time, I'm sure, but it's not really that much when it's all you have left."_

_"Your world?" _Hitomi had to give it credit. For a voice in her head, it sure had a complex back-story. _"What do you mean, your world?"_

_"Have you ever heard stories where people travel to a magical world? With fairies and elves and dragons, princesses and knights, the whole deal?"_

Hitomi hesitantly responded affirmatively.

_"Those worlds are real. We're not too far from a world gate right now, actually. Less than sixty meters." _The voice said.

Hitomi couldn't help but stifle a laugh. At least this was entertaining. She looked back to the clock. Only four minutes left.

_"This isn't funny!" _The voice said, then paused. _"Wait. Oh. Oh, I'm sorry. This world doesn't have any magic, does it?" _There was another pause. _"No... it looks like it has a little... but very, very little. Great. No wonder you've been so cold to me!" _The voice trailed off. _"Okay, let's try this again. What's your name?"_

Hitomi blinked twice. _"Shizuki Hitomi."_

_"Well, Shizuki, my name is Eve, and I'm here to inform you that magic is very, very much real. I suppose I should prove that first, before we go any farther."_

Hitomi looked around at the classroom. No one was paying her any attention still, luckily. _"How do you plan on doing that?"_

_"Hold up, will you? I told you, you're only sixty meters from a world gate. I'll be with you shortly." _Eve said.

There was a thirty second pause, and the classroom door slid open silently. A young woman, perhaps eighteen, with long green hair and blue eyes, stepped in to the room. She was wearing what appeared to be a combination of fantasy armor and twenty-first century American day clothes. Around her neck lay a red pendant, glowing softly with its own light. Her arm was adorned with what looked like a full chrome ringlet, what appeared to be a holographic screen projecting from a dot in the center. She had a meter long short sword in a scabbard on a belt, its hilt adorned with gemstones. Next to it, two .45 pistols hung. Of course, Hitomi didn't see any of this, because she was far too focused on the meter and a half angelic wings folded onto her back.

They were a light pink color, she guessed, but very close to white. They arched up slightly over her shoulder height, though lower than her head, and came down slightly below her hips. The fold they took was reminiscent of an eagle, from what she could see. The girl saw her staring at them, and smiled, flexing them slowly open and closed. Hitomi looked around the classroom. No one else seemed to notice the girl there, though the teacher was looking at the open door confusedly.

Eve, if it was her, snapped her fingers. A collection of red sparks emitted from the contact point, and she leaned in and blew them over the classroom. There was a brief pause, and every pencil in the classroom snapped simultaneously. The students looked about, shocked, not a single one giving Eve a second glance. Hitomi swallowed hard. Either she was so deep in a hallucination that there wasn't any real point fighting it anyway, or...

_"I'll be in the courtyard." _Eve said telepathically. _"See you in five." _She smiled at Hitomi, turned, and left the room.

Hitomi's senses returned to normal almost instantly. The teacher was yelling at them, asking what had driven them all to disrupt class so suddenly. Hitomi looked at the clock again for a moment. Given the situation, she supposed missing one day of class wouldn't be too bad.

"Um, Teacher..." Hitomi said. "I'm feeling very ill. Can I see the nurse?"

The teacher paused. Her eyes narrowed, then softened. "Of course. You wouldn't say that unless it was serious. Unlike some of the other students here..." She looked angrily at the remainder of the class.

"Thank you." Hitomi said, and exited the room as quickly and quietly as she could.

With only a very slight hesitation, she headed for the courtyard.

Eve was waiting there for her, a slightly amused expression on her face. "I take it you're convinced now?" she said cheekily.

"I shouldn't be." Hitomi said, looking at her. "It makes much more sense that I've just had some kind of psychic break. Magic is impossible. The world works according to the physical laws – it always has. But... yes. Somehow, impossible or not, magic exists." She paused, took a deep breath, and looked up at Eve. "I do believe you."

"Of course you do. You're, what, thirteen? Just the perfect mix of logical skepticism and childlike wonder to take full advantage of magic. Young enough to believe in it, old enough to use it responsibly." Eve looked down at her. "I'm open to questions, of course. Though, I will ask you to come to a decision by, say, noon today? I don't want to rush you, but, uh, I do have a limited time schedule. I need to get to the next candidate."

"One hour twenty minutes." Hitomi said. "Alright. I'll have an answer by then, sure. I guess, then, my first question should be what you actually want me for. You never really said."

"Oh, right to the point." Eve said, grinning. "Usually it's the wings in these non-magical worlds, for whatever reason." Her smile faded. "So, what do I want you for? Well, I didn't just rattle off those numbers for fun. My world really ends in fifty-six and a half days. Naturally, I'm trying to stop that."

"So, what am I, then?" Hitomi said. "Child of prophecy? Hidden magical potential? A princess from another world? Friends with a god for some reason? Born on some lay lines? At this point, I'm not going to question anything."

"Eh, he, he! One of those, one of those!" Another voice said. "Though it's still forty-three days off. And that's not the important part, anyway."

Hitomi blinked, and Eve sighed. "Stop being creepy, Jaxx."

There was a shimmer, and black cat stepped out from behind Eve's left leg. It grinned up at Hitomi. "I'm not creepy, am I, Hitomi? The cat swished its tail. "Or are we not close enough for first names yet? I suppose it's a bit soon, I suppose, I suppose." The cat rubbed against Hitomi's leg, purring.

"..." Hitomi said not a word.

"Don't mind him." Eve said. "He's a familiar. Not mine, I'm glad to say. But he does have his uses." she paused. "To answer your question in a less cryptic fashion, I have no idea. Jaxx led me to this portal, and I just popped in and reached out to the first mind willing to talk. The cat might be a bit loose in the head, but that's because he's got one paw in the present, one paw in the past, one in the future, and one out of time altogether, as he'll no doubt tell you on more than one occasion. He might not be able to tell us why you're important, but if he led me to you, you are exactly the person I need to meet." Eve said. "Somehow, you can help save the world. Which, again, comes back to what I need you for, Shizuki. I want you to join us. I'm gathering a group of adventurers together from as many far flung worlds as I can reach. You'd be the last person I need, to bring our total to eight." she sighed. "I'm not going to lie to you, Shizuki. It's going to be dangerous. Deadly, maybe. As I've said, you're not the only contestant I have for this position, either. Sure, you're at the top of the list for whatever reason, but I don't want you to feel that if you say no you've doomed my quest. There is a reason I was drawn to you first, I'm sure, but if you're the only one in the multiverse who can fill this position successfully, then the tolerance for failure is so small that we pretty much don't have a chance anyway. So, please, consider this carefully."

"Why are you trying to convince me out of it?" Hitomi asked. "After you went through all this trouble to find me, why not portray things in a better light?"

"..." Eve paused. "Shizuki ... you're thirteen. Yes, as I said, that's old enough to use magic. But... you're thirteen. Just a kid. Too young to have the weight of a world on you. I just want you to really think before deciding, that's all. Because when you get hurt, and you will get hurt, I don't want you blaming me for it. If you say yes, it's for the long haul. Well, at least a month and a half."

Hitomi was lost in thought. Her life, while full enough, was rather boring. Nothing really happened to her. She supposed there were plenty of people who would have jumped at the opportunity to get such a normal life, but she couldn't help but be just a tiny bit bored with it. And, to save a world... it was such a romantic concept.

"What's the chance I'll die?" Hitomi said. "Just from what you've seen."

Eve looked at her. "No training, no known skills, no magic... eighty-five percent. From what I've seen, assuming that there's a fifty percent chance of a TPK at some point, you have about a fifteen percent chance of survival."

Hitomi blinked. "Really? I'm surprised it's that high."

"Well, we'll have your back at all times." she said. "So, actually, saying that I think you have a seventy percent chance of being killed when you have backup is about reasonable."

"Right..." Hitomi said. Fifteen percent wasn't really all that good, to be honest, even if it was higher than she had expected. Still, this was a once in a million lifetimes opportunity. She looked at the clock across the courtyard. It was just about to strike 11:00. She still had an hour. An hour to think.

"He, he, the golden girl looks a bit mean, doesn't she?" Jaxx said, laughing. "Guns ready to go already! What a professional." Eve drew her blade.

"I knew it." she said. "We've been followed. I thought I felt some eyes on us."

Hitomi looked around. She couldn't see anyone, but the air was filled with a sense of foreboding.

"Oh, I'm sure she's fine." Jaxx said. "You really aught to talk to her more, Hitomi. She doesn't have that many friends." he laughed again. "You four would make quite the team, I'm sure!"

Eve looked around again, then sheathed her blade. "You better be right, Jaxx. If I get shot because of this..."

"Four..." Hitomi started, then shook her head. "Never mind." she paused. "So, what do I get out of this? This is a myth and magic adventure, right? There are always rewards."

"Well, magic, for one. You'll probably get some kind of magical power at some point, almost everyone does. This world does have magic, if weakly, so anything you learn will probably be usable here. There will be treasure on the way, obviously. I don't know your financial situation, but more gold can't hurt. We'll most likely come across at least a few magic items, and you'll be able to get your hands on some high technology, too. Then, assuming we do manage to save the world, we'll probably be rewarded in some way by an array of magical beings. But, in all likelihood, we won't be getting much in the way of loot until we either win or lose. Maybe a few things here and there, but, well, this isn't a role-playing game. The real reward is saving the world. I'm not saying there won't be cool stuff along the way, but I wouldn't expect too much of it." Eve said.

"Understood." Hitomi looked around. She sighed. This was a one in a million lifetimes opportunity, but she only had one. She wasn't anything special. Yes, this was her chance to _become_ special, but it might cost her life. And even if it didn't, being simply gone for fifty-six days would be a death sentence for her education. She wouldn't have much of a life left to return to after a disappearance that large, at least not for a few years. Even if she was willing to consider the risk, she couldn't force her friends and family through an absence like that.

"Oh... I'm sorry, Eve." Hitomi said. "You've changed my whole world in twenty minutes, but... I can't leave. I have a life here, and just disappearing for a month and a half..."

"You wouldn't need to." Jaxx said. "Just your nights. We can't be fighting constantly anyway. You might miss a day or two, but most times it should be fine."

"My... nights?" Hitomi said. "When would I sleep?"

"Magic, my dear!" the cat cackled. "We can rest you right up with a simple spell. You won't have to sleep at all for two months. Literally!"

Eve shot the cat a dirty look. "She said no. We respect that choice, Jaxx." She leaned down, giving Hitomi a smile. "I'm glad, really. Hey, once I save the world, I'll come back and show you around a bit, how about that? See, now you don't even have to really miss out." She ruffled her hair. "You're such a cute kid, you know? I'm sure you get all the boys. Go back to school. Have a normal, good day. Study hard. Do whatever you do here."

Hitomi hesitated again, then sighed. It wasn't worth it. She wasn't a hero. She was a middle-school girl. She wasn't ready or qualified to save the world.

"I will." Hitomi said, bowing lightly to Eve. "Thank you for contacting me. I'm so sorry I can't help you."

"Don't sweat it. Really." Eve said. "It was a bit of a long shot anyway, but I figured I might as well-"

There was a sharp report, a distinct noise easily recognizable as gunfire to Hitomi. She gasped, looking around wildly for the source. There was a glitter in the distance, and a second blast sounded. She saw a bolt of golden energy erupt from a nearby balcony, though the figure shooting was too far off to make out clearly.

"Damn it, Jaxx!" Eve drew her blade again. "I thought you said that we didn't have to worry about her!"

"It's not her you need to worry about." Jaxx said. "It's what she's firing at that is the problem."

A rapid array of reports filled the air, and Hitomi saw the figure drop to the street level. Her gaze was drawn from there to a collection of strange shadowy forms filling the street. Eve said what might have been a curse under her breath.

"They must have followed me here." she said. "I'm sorry about this, Shizuki. I was sure I had closed the gate behind me. You stay right here." she snapped again, and Hitomi was surrounded in a swarm of red sparks. "This should serve as a barrier for about ten seconds if one reaches you. If that happens, run. Just run. Okay?" she looked deeply into Hitomi's eyes. "I won't let them hurt you."

The gunfire intensified. "What's that idiot doing?" Eve extended her wings. "Creatures of shadow don't care how many times you hit them. It's all cross-sectional area with them." her sword began to emit spectral red flame. "She's going to get herself killed at this rate." with a smirk and a flourish, she lifted off the ground, spun, and dived at them, gracefully arcing into battle.

Hitomi watched her sweep down on them. When she touched the ground, a blast of magical energy threw the first line of creatures backwards. They screeched, but by that time she was already in action. Slicing deeply through them with each swing of her blade, Eve made quick progress through the crowd. Soon the creatures began to swarm her. Hitomi noticed them missing her by mere centimeters with bolts of dark energy, Eve athletically dodging their attacks while dealing her own with ease. She looked in her element. Still, she wasn't killing them very fast, and Hitomi noted some breaking out from the pack and beginning to approach the nearby buildings. Though it seemed unlikely that Eve would suffer much damage from them, it seemed equally unlikely that she would manage to regain control of the situation before whatever these things were attacked the school. Hitomi felt fear rise in her chest again. Almost fifteen hundred students attended class here, and they all were in danger. Her eyes flicked to the nearest shadow. It had left the pack completely and was nearly at the doors by now. She felt herself freeze. What could she do?

There was a furious scream from inside the swarm, and the gunfire intensified suddenly and dramatically. With a burst of golden light, the swarm was torn to shreds in a flurry of a thousand bullets. The figure in the center seemed unharmed. Hitomi was sure she recognized the person, but couldn't place them. They seemed young. The figure exchanged a few words with Eve, and the two attacked the remaining creatures quickly and efficiently. Ten more seconds, and none of the shadows remained.

The figure turned to Eve, and even from this distance Hitomi could see the look of shock cross her face as Eve hit her with a sharp red bolt. The girl collapsed into the street. Eve looked at her for a second, then flew back to the rooftop courtyard and landed next to Hitomi.

"A bit of a false alarm. They were much weaker than I expected." she said nonchalantly.

"You..." Hitomi said. "What did you do?"

"Huh?" Eve cocked her head at Hitomi. "Oh, you mean the girl there? I just hit her with a memory wipe, that's all. She'll be absolutely fine. Heck, she'll even remember fighting the things. I only removed you and myself from the picture."

"Why? I mean, she was obviously able to hold her own. I think she got more of them then you did." Hitomi said. "She might have been useful."

"Yeah, but I'm trying to keep as low of a profile here as I can." Eve said. "I'm not really supposed to be here at all, so any trace I can erase, I will. The less of a trail I leave, the lower the chance something will attack here when trying to find me. And because it's magic, that includes memories. Just talking to you has increased your chance of being attacked... ten fold? One hundred fold? Significantly, to be sure. Two in the same school? Seems like asking for trouble."

"Well, why not recruit her instead?" Hitomi asked. "She seemed like she could handle it." meanwhile, her mind raced to identify the person. Same school? She was sure she would recognize them the second she saw them in class again, but she still couldn't place it for some reason.

"Yeah, but she wasn't on my list." Eve said. "I'm not looking for the greatest warriors. I'm looking for the set of people that I need for this quest. I have no idea why these people are the ones I need, but Jaxx is never wrong."

Hitomi paused. "Those things, they can attack us here?"

"Yes, ostensibly." Eve said. "I can't imagine they'll make a habit of visiting, but they could, sure. But they could have at any time before hand, too." she looked at Hitomi. "Don't let that scare you into feeling you need to learn how to fight them."

"You said that they're one hundred times more likely to attack now that you've contacted me." Hitomi said. "I think it's reasonable-"

"That was hyperbole! How do you think I'd be able to calculate something like that?" Eve shook her head. "Yes, it's more likely that they'll attack now. But even if it's one hundred, heck, one thousand times as likely, there's still almost no chance of it happening. If it was one in a million before, it's still one in ten thousand now!"

Hitomi looked at Eve. "That's not a risk I'm willing to take with my friends and family. I saw those things break apart, saw you lose control of the situation, saw them preparing to attack, and I froze. I was the only one who could see to do anything, and yet there was nothing I could do. When it was a matter of giving myself up to some quest, I found it to be not worth it. But now it's my fight too, whether I want it or not. I don't want to be helpless to protect those I care about. And if you're right, if there's really something special about me, don't I have an obligation to find and use that skill?"

"That other girl will-" Eve started.

"Not know what she's doing and fail at some point." Hitomi said. "You said it yourself, she had no idea what she was doing. Whatever her skills are, they don't overlap with this threat. This was luck and you know it."

"Shizuki, look, please-" Eve started again, but Hitomi cut her off abruptly.

"You wanted me to join you just half an hour ago. I'm the top of your list. And now I have a good reason to do this. Yes, I'm young. Yes, this is probably foolish. But someone has to do it, and if it can help me protect myself, my friends, and my way of life, shouldn't I?" she looked at Eve seriously. "You've explained the danger clearly, given me every chance to turn away. I even did. I'm not taken in by the adventure, by the magic, by the power, or by the loot. I'm doing this to protect myself and my friends. If that's not something worth fighting for, what are you doing? After all, you obviously have the mobility to escape the disaster if you've managed to come to this world, right? Mine might be a little smaller scale, only a small city in a single country, but I'll never be much more than a small scale hero, anyway. I've made up my mind, Eve. I won't stand by and let my world fall apart, even if it means I have to change myself. I accept. I will join you. And I will succeed."

Eve paused, giving Hitomi a long, long look. Her mouth curled into a smile. "You know, you remind me of myself, when I was young and impulsive and rash. Before I realized exactly what being a warrior actually took. Before I knew what changing myself really meant."

"Do you regret it?" Hitomi asked.

Eve laughed. It started small, growing and growing as she shook her head at Hitomi. "Oh, every second. But I wouldn't trade it for the world. Any of the worlds." She sighed. "Are you absolutely sure about this, Shizuki? There's no going back after you say yes. We'll be expecting you, and planing around your presence. You not showing could get us killed. So this is it; this is your last chance. If it'll make you feel better, I can even wipe this from your mind, protect you as much as you were before. Your life will be literally unchanged. You can still return to normal. But this is it, your final choice."

Hitomi nodded tersely. "I accept. I will take the quest."

"Well then, Shizuki, welcome to the party." Eve said, bowing to her briefly.

"Please, call me Hitomi." Hitomi said, smiling.

"You called sick, right?" Eve said, looking at her. "I don't see why we shouldn't start right away. Get you introduced to the gang and whatnot. You should grab any weapons and armor you might have, though given the looks of this world, I can't imagine there will be too much of that. Can you be back here in half an hour?"

Hitomi shook her head. "No need, really. I don't have anything useful at all. I'm about as ready as I'll be."

"Fine by me, then." Eve said. "Well, Hitomi, the world gate awaits us."

Hitomi looked at the clock. 11:04 AM, Friday May 18. Thirty minutes ago, her world had made sense. Thirty minutes from now, she would be in a storybook adventure world, filled with magic and fantastic happenings. A day from now, a week, a month, and she would almost certainly be a completely different person than the one who stood here now, about to begin the first real adventure of her life.

And in fifty-six days, twelve hours, fifty-six minutes, the world would end.

##########

End Chapter Report:

Shizuki Hitomi is now level 1.

Shizuki Hitomi has joined Eve's party.

Shizuki Hitomi has unlocked the achievement 'What First Threshold?' for beginning their adventure within one hour of receiving the call to action.

Shizuki Hitomi has unlocked the achievement 'Hero of Their Own Story' for progressing from secondary supporting character to main character.


	2. Chapter the Second

Chapter the second, in which we are introduced to the main cast, and a contract is signed.

May 18, 11:07 AM – Fifty-six days, twelve hours, fifty-three minutes remaining.

"It should be working." Eve said, tapping her foot impatiently against the pavement. Hitomi said nothing as Eve snapped her fingers, sparks flying from them as she attempted to activate the world gate for the third time. The markings on the stone lit with a blood red glow for a moment, then faded as they had the previous times.

"Perhaps you have the wrong spot?" Hitomi ventured. She was new to this whole magic thing, sure, but even still she had figured a world gate would be somewhat more glamorous than a graffiti covered rock in the middle of her middle-school grounds.

"No, this is definitely it..." Eve said, kicking the rock in frustration. "Why won't you work?"

There was a coughing of red sparks from the rock, and the markings began to emit a deep purple glow seemingly on their own. The symbols danced across the surface of the stone slowly, arranging themselves in a circle.

"Finally." muttered Eve. "It must be rusty from disuse. We might very well be the first people to try to use this gate in decades, even centuries."

Hitomi watched as the symbols floated slowly off of the stone, forming a sphere in the air just next to the rock. She looked around anxiously. "Won't someone see this? It's rather flashy."

"Oh, you'd be surprised at how much magic people can ignore, especially in a world like this one." Eve said. "Even in magically saturated worlds, some humans seem to have a hard time seeing it. You'd be surprised to what lengths people's brains will go to keep their world making sense. To be honest, the surprising thing is how little trouble you're having. The more magic you get exposed to the easier it is for you to see it, but I'm the first magical thing you've met." Eve paused, then shrugged. "Oh well. Some people are just more disposed to seeing magic than others, I guess."

The purple sphere solidified, turning into a deep violet aperture about two meters in diameter. It swirled and twisted like a dark whirlpool in the sky. Hitomi shivered. It felt off to her, for some reason.

"Got the chills?" Eve said, grinning. "Yeah, precursor magic can do that to you. Don't worry about it. They think only about one in eight hundred world gate transfers end in vanishings!" She cackled. "Not too bad for cross-universal travel, I say."

Hitomi laughed nervously. "Eh... if you say so." She looked at the portal with considerably more worry.

"I'm just kidding." Eve said. "It's really more like one in twenty million. Now, give me a moment to set the coordinates..." she closed her eyes, and the portal's edge flashed red briefly. "There. All set. Portal to Tepamegen now receiving travelers!"

"Tepamegen?" Hitomi asked. "Is that what your world is called?"

"In gate-speak, yes." Eve said. "Don't worry, you won't need to know more than, like, two or three names unless you plan on using the world gate network extensively. As for what the people who live there call it, you'll find that it's almost always 'earth' no matter what world you're on, which can get rather confusing to be frank."

Hitomi nodded slowly. She could see this getting confusing very quickly. It was a magical world, after all, and they tended to have plenty of strange names for things. She was suddenly glad she had her notebooks with her. They would likely come in handy.

"Well, come on." Eve said. "In you go. Don't worry, it's not painful."

Hitomi looked at the ominous dark portal for another three seconds, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and stepped into it.

It was like floating through a cool, moist fluid. Hitomi opened her eyes, but she couldn't see anything at all, not even her hands in front of her. Whatever the substance was, it was less dense than water but considerably more so than air. It felt like it was clinging to her, getting into her skin. She shuttered. At least Eve had been right; it wasn't painful, just extremely uncomfortable. She felt herself being blown down in a current of the stuff. Something brushed against her, and she gasped in fright. The fluid went down her throat. It felt weird, but it didn't do much to her as far as she could tell.

_"Shh... It's just me." _Eve sent her. _"It's almost over."_

Hitomi shuddered again, barely keeping her gag reflex from trying to expel the substance inside her. Going into a coughing fit now would only get more of the stuff in her lungs.

Suddenly, her vision cleared. Hitomi didn't waste time looking around, coughing the fluid out of her lungs as violently as her body would allow. A few wisps of dark energy flew from her lips, and she fell to her knees.

"Oh, you breathed it in?" Eve said, shaking her head. "That wasn't a good plan. Still, can't be helped. You'll be fine."

Hitomi got back to her feet, still coughing. "You..." she coughed again. "could have warned me."

"It was only, like, ten seconds!" Eve said. "I figured you'd be fine."

Hitomi put her hand up, waving Eve off. "It's fine." she shook her head. "I'm okay. And I certainly won't do that again."

She put her head up, shook it again, and looked around to see just where they were. The portal they had exited was much, much larger than the one they had entered, almost fifty meters in diameter. More impressive still was the room they were in. Built to house the portal, the domed enclosure was massive, arching high above her head. It appeared to be constructed entirely out of marble. There were four large exits, their sides gilded and adorned with massive intricate silver statues. The apex of the dome was a sterile white, which struck Hitomi as a shame. It would have been perfect for one of those ceiling murals. The floor wasn't completely abandoned, but Hitomi guessed there were perhaps fifteen other people standing around, a quite small number for a room so large.

"Quiet day." Eve said. "Usually there are a few hundred people here. Well, there used to be, anyway." She extended her arm, putting her fingers through the holographic screen. It flickered, and expanded. A set of charts and numbers appeared.

"2.3 ppm..." Eve muttered. "Already up by 0.1 in only twelve hours..." she flicked her wrist, and the screen retracted to the idle state. She sighed. "Well, Hitomi, off we go." Eve gave Hitomi her hand, which she took. "We're still about five minutes from our destination. Might as well get there, huh?"

"2.3 ppm of what?" Hitomi asked as they walked. "Is there a poison in the air?"

"You could say that." Jaxx said, appearing on Hitomi's shoulders. She managed to not throw him off in surprise. "You could also say that about oxygen, though, if you asked the right creatures. And the void thinks you're all-"

Eve put her hand over Jaxx's mouth. "Yes. He means yes. It's the miasma. The world is beginning to reek with it. And it does poison you, but not in the way you think of poison normally. It infects your soul. Corrupts you. Turns your thoughts dark and saps your will."

"Is that what we're trying to stop?" Hitomi asked. Eve laughed darkly.

"Not really. It's just a side effect of the world dieing. At the rate it's building, it won't break 50 ppm before everything ends anyway. Just a little extra effect to add to the destruction." Eve said. "It's just an unrelated effect caused in part by what we really fight."

"Those shadow things, then?" Hitomi said, but Eve shook her head again.

"No. Those were just some lackeys of the king of shadows who I pissed off two weeks back. We might have to deal with them a bit, but they have even less to do with this than the miasma does." Eve said. "Just hold on. When we get to base, I'll explain everything. But we really shouldn't talk about it in the open like this."

Hitomi nodded, looking paranoidly around to see if anyone had noticed them talking. No one seemed to be looking at them, luckily. Eve walked quickly, and Hitomi had some trouble keeping up. Jaxx wriggling on her neck wasn't helping. They exited the building quickly, opening into what looked very much like a modern city. People filled the streets, bustling from one place to the next. Hitomi glanced at the people as they passed. Wings, horns, pointy ears, tails; if there was any question of whether she was still on earth somewhere, it left her mind. She sped up slightly, keeping a little closer to Eve. Eve squeezed her hand hard, and looked down at Jaxx.

"Are you sure you found the right girl?" She quipped.

"Yes, yes." Jaxx said. "Give her two days. Trust me, you won't question it then."

Hitomi swallowed hard, relaxing her grip on Eve. She was here to save the world. Now wasn't the time to be having second thoughts, or to get scared by the unknown. This is what she had signed up for. She took two deep breaths.

"Where are we heading?" she asked. "Do you have a apartment building, or a laboratory, or what?"

"An abandoned castle." Eve said. "We're heading to the local teleport gate. Just over there." She nodded her head at a black obelisk in center of a nearby city square. "That will take us the rest of the way."

Hitomi shuddered. "Another gate?"

"Not a world gate, a teleport gate. This one will work near instantaneously." Eve said. She smiled coyly. "It must be confusing to you, but I assure you it's just culture shock. You'll get the hang of it quickly. Intelligent beings everywhere share one trait in common. We all like things to be simple to use. Everything will make sense soon enough."

Hitomi nodded. She supposed that she had gotten the hang of stranger terminology and mechanics in video games and storybooks before. It was just much more important now; now mixing up terms could get her killed.

As they approached the obelisk, Hitomi marveled at just how large everything was, and how modern it all seemed. When she thought of magical worlds, she imagined villages and castles, princesses and knights, not great cities with populations in the millions. She wouldn't be surprised if this place was larger than Mitakihara, even.

Still, it didn't take all that long to make their way to the stone. Eve approached it smoothly. "It's very user friendly." Eve said. "All you need to do is keep holding my hand, okay?"

Hitomi nodded.

"If everything goes well, you won't -" There was a brief flash of light, and Hitomi felt her feet jerk slightly. The view around her changed suddenly.

"Even feel anything." Eve finished. "Welcome to the forest fortress, Hitomi!"

Hitomi found herself standing on the edge of a cliff overlooking an old castle, the light of the moon casting the area in a strong silver glow. A river lazily trailed around behind it. The forest had claimed much of the east wing, but the west wing of the structure seemed to be mostly intact, and she could see lights in some of the windows.

"It's..." Hitomi said slowly, trying to take it in.

"Not much, I know. But it's our home base. You might as well get used to it." Eve said.

"...night." Hitomi finished. "It's night. It was morning just a few seconds ago." She looked up at Eve. "Where did nine hours go?"

Eve laughed. "It was a bit of a long teleport, Hitomi. A good few thousand kilometers. The planet's a sphere. We jumped timezones, that's all. If you think this is bad, just wait until we visit a world that doesn't have a 24 hour day."

"EVE!"

There was a cry from the plane below them. Hitomi turned her eyes downwards. A figure was running up a wooden ramp built on the cliff's face, carrying a lantern. She rushed upwards, the lantern bobbing up and down erratically as she ran.

"EEEEEVVVVEEEE!"

Eve sighed. "Yes, I'm back, Alice. I've brought a new friend. She's your age this time."

"Ohhh!" Hitomi took a sharp step back as Alice somehow appeared in front of her seemingly from nowhere. She had long black hair tucked beneath a pointy black hat, a black nightdress covering her body. Her dark brown eyes looked deep into Hitomi's. "Hello! Who are you?"

"S-Shizuki Hitomi." Hitomi took another step back.

"Oh, that's a pretty name." Alice said, twirling back on the points of her black long toed shoes. She extended her hand to Hitomi. "My name is Alice. Nice to meet you!" she giggled.

After a slight hesitation, Hitomi shook the offered hand. "Nice to meet you." she said, feeling Jaxx untangle himself from her shoulders.

"Oh, it seems like Jaxx has taken a liking to you, too!" Alice said, grinning as Jaxx began to rub against her. "Was he a good kitty, Eve?"

"Very helpful." Eve said. "Found our little charge here in only seven attempts."

"Only seven?" Alice said, looking down at Jaxx. "That's much better than usual."

"Can I have a treat, master?" Jaxx said, rubbing against Alice with more vigor and beginning to purr. "For being such a good kitty?"

Alice laughed, leaning down. A bright blue-white glowing pentagram floated over her hand for a moment, and a small fish manifested itself for her. She offered it to Jaxx, who seemed very happy with his reward.

"Alice is our utility mage." Eve informed Hitomi. "She can't use much combat magic, but she knows every cantrip in the book and then some."

"Sixty-four thousand, two hundred ninety-one spells memorized and counting." Alice giggled. "I try to get at least fifty new ones a day." Her face darkened. "And I'm not a mage. I'm a spectral witch."

Eve put a hand up in defense. "Sorry, sorry, Alice. I know how you feel about that. I'm just a bit tired."

"You're a witch?" Hitomi said quietly, looking back to her clothes. "I couldn't have guessed."

"So what are you?" Alice asked, turning from Eve to look back at Hitomi. "You look like a little anime schoolgirl."

"We don't know. She's from a nearly magicless world, and has no talents that we can see." Eve said. "But Jaxx is sure that she's important."

"Then she must be." Alice said. "Jaxx is never wrong about these things."

Hitomi put a hand to the back of her head and laughed nervously. "I'm sure we'll find out eventually."

"Can I show her around?" Alice said. "Pretty please?"

Eve shook her head slowly, chuckling. "Go ahead, Alice. Try not to wear her out too much."

"Will do!" Alice said, standing straight and giving Eve a sharp salute. She turned back to Hitomi. "Come on, Shizuki!" She paused. "No, wait. Anime schoolgirl. First name last." Hitomi watched her look skywards for a moment, thinking. She turned back to her with a smile. "Come on, Hitomi!" She giggled again, dragging Hitomi by the hand down the wooden platforms, Jaxx following behind them.

"I can tell that I'm going to like you a lot." Alice said as they ran. "You seem so kind and innocent, but you've been observing, thinking, and planing this whole time, haven't you? I think you would make a great witch, Hitomi." She flashed her another smile. "Do you want to be friends?"

"Uh..." Hitomi was having considerable trouble keeping pace with Alice, barely managing not to fall over. "Sure. I mean, we're going to be working together anyway, so we might as well."

"Oh, I'm so excited!" Alice said, and Hitomi believed her. She began to skip-bounce her way down the platforms, nearly dragging Hitomi at this point. "I don't have too many friends, so I always like getting new ones."

"You and Eve seem to get along." Hitomi said, glancing briefly over the side. They were almost at the bottom, perhaps three quarters of the way.

"Yeah, but she's old." Alice said. "I meant friends my age." She came to an abrupt stop, Hitomi slamming into her as she turned around. Alice caught her seemingly effortlessly, an even more impressive feat given that she was almost twelve centimeters shorter that Hitomi. "I'm really glad you came." She leaned in close to her face, pitching up on her toes, only a few centimeters separating them.

Hitomi blinked twice, looking deep into Alice's eyes, their noses almost brushing. "Uh..."

Alice giggled, spun on her toes, and started running again. Hitomi was jerked by her left hand, and only managed to keep upright by releasing it before she was pulled over. Alice sped off, running down the last platform and onto the stone plane. She stopped about one third of the way across it. "Come on! Don't you want to see inside?"

Hitomi sighed. Apparently, Alice had a poor grasp of the concept of 'wearing out too much'. She felt a smile cross her face. She kind of reminded her of Sayaka, in that respect. Shaking her head, Hitomi continued out after Alice. "Slow down!" she called. "I can't keep up!"

"Oh, silly." Alice said. "The faster we get this done, the more time we'll have to do fun stuff!"

Hitomi looked up at the moon. They were on a time schedule, right? She wasn't sure they had the time to spare.

"Don't worry about the whole 'world ending in a month and two thirds' thing." Alice said. "If she needs us, Eve will let us know. So we should use any time we have, right?"

Hitomi supposed she was right.

The two girls made it to the castle entrance with little trouble. The doors were missing; unsurprising, really, given its age. There was no one in the doorway, which surprised Hitomi for a moment. Then she remembered that Eve had said that she brought their number to eight. With Eve and Alice accounted for, that only left five others. She supposed given that, it wasn't that unlikely that the entrance would be left unguarded.

"Well, come on!" Alice said. "Time for the tour!"

She bounded inside, and Hitomi followed her. The entrance looked as if it might have been rather impressive fifteen hundred years ago, but now the dark cracked stone just made Hitomi shiver. Alice swung her lantern back at Hitomi. "This place looks a lot more cheery in the day." she said. "I keep telling everyone that we need some dedicated light-sources, but no one listens to me." she frowned briefly, then smiled again. "Though I guess it does make a foreboding atmosphere, which is good for a fortress."

"I guess." Hitomi said. She had to agree. A few lights would really help this place.

"So, we don't really have an east wing, but that just makes things easier to find if you ask me." Alice said, leading Hitomi to the far wall. Three intact doors faced them, one straight, one headed left, the other right. She nodded at the straight door. "That's the meeting room. Used to be the throne room, but the throne's missing. Still, it has a big table." she opened the left door. "And this way is the east wing."

Hitomi looked in. The hallway was closed by crumbling stone only six meters from the door. Alice closed the door.

"See, we're two thirds done already!" Alice said. Hitomi was pretty sure it didn't work like that, but she didn't say anything. "Just the west wing left." She opened the door, a long, well lit hallway beyond. "Come on!"

Hitomi entered the hallway. For a second, she was surprised at the light, but then her eyes landed on the LED strips lining the corridor. She looked at them with a vacant expression for a moment, before shaking her head and sighing. If they wanted to light their fantasy forest fortress with electric lighting, who was she to complain.

"The entrance to the basement is behind the first door on the right." Alice said as they walked. "The first room on your left is the pantry. The second on your right is the kitchen. Those next two both lead to the library, and the one after that is a storage room. Then there are the stairs, and finally the armory is down at the end, beyond those far double doors."

Hitomi nodded. It seemed simple enough. She looked curiously at the armory. "Can I use all the rooms?" She asked.

"Of course! Only the personal rooms are off limits." Alice said. "You're allowed to go anywhere else, and use anything you find! I'd check out the kitchen as soon as I could, if I was you." She giggled. "The food here is great."

"So there are no rules here?" Hitomi asked.

"Well, I wouldn't say that." Alice said. "Stabbing one of the others would probably get you yelled at, and stabbed back. But short of that, pretty much. I mean, we're an adventuring party. We're here to save the world. It would be a little stupid to give us bedtimes, don't you think?"

Hitomi had to agree, that was a good point. "So, where to next?" She asked.

"The second floor, of course!" Alice said. "We still haven't introduced you to anyone else yet! I'm sure they'll all like you."

Alice skipped up the steps, Hitomi following. "Feel free to ask me any questions, too." Alice said. "I hear you're from a non-magical world, so I could understand if you're confused with some stuff." She paused. "And, you know, if we're going to be friends, we should get to know each other better!"

"Do you live here?" Hitomi asked, curious. Alice smiled back at her.

"Yep. Been here for almost six months now. Eve's been taking care of me. She's really amazing, you know?" Alice sighed. "When I'm older, I want to be just like her. Well, minus the wings." She shuddered. "They look a bit frilly, to be honest."

Hitomi laughed softly. "I guess. I wouldn't really know." Hitomi sighed. "So she is a good person, then?"

"Well, yeah." Alice said. "I mean, you've met her."

Hitomi shook her head. "Yeah, and the only thing I really know about her is that she's okay with asking thirteen-year-old's to die for her. She seemed nice, sure, but she could have been hiding something. Still, if you haven't become suspicious in six months, it's probably nothing."

"Oh, Eve wouldn't have asked you if it wasn't really important." Alice agreed enthusiastically. "It took me two weeks to convince her to let me join, and I'd been living with her already!"

Hitomi turned to her, cocking her head. "Wait, Eve contacted you before the world ending thing?"

"Yep. We were together for almost five months by then." Alice said. "We've only known about this quest for about twenty days. Do you think we would just now be getting our last member if we'd known about this thing for six months?" She laughed. "That would be terribly slow of us."

Hitomi was about to ask why she had been living here before, but just then Alice threw open the doors at the top of the stairs, leading to another hallway. "Here we are, the second floor!" She said. "Hi, De-De! Hi, Max!"

"Oh, hey." Two seventeenish looking boys turned towards Alice, their greetings made simultaneously. One was in dark mages robes, a spell book tucked under his arm. The other pushed his glasses up farther on his nose and closed the laptop he was holding.

"How's things going?" The mage asked.

"I see you've found a new friend." The other commented.

"Oh, things are fine." Alice said. "And this is Hitomi! She's going to join us in our quest."

The mage took a few steps forward, extending his hand. "Well, Hitomi, my name is Derick, though everyone calls me De-De for some reason." he pointed back at the other boy. "And that nerd over there is Max." Max scowled briefly, then rolled his eyes. Derick grinned. "Welcome to the team!"

Hitomi bowed to the two of them. "Very polite, isn't she?" Max commented.

"Indeed." Derick said.

"I'm guessing you're a mage?" Hitomi said to Derick, then put a hand over her mouth. "Oh, sorry. I mean a magic user of some kind. I know you can be offended by the wrong terms."

Derick and Max looked at each other briefly, then laughed.

"You'd think that." Max said, snapping his fingers and letting out a spray of blue sparks, similar to Eve's.

"Yes, you would." Derick said, opening his spell book and scrolling through the holographic readout.

Alice sighed. "De-De's from a Type II civilization, so his technology is basically magic at this point. He's the most scientifically advanced person here, but he knows next to nothing about how it works. Max's culture developed advanced magic theory until it basically became physics for them. He's a scientist, no question about it. So, yes. De-De's a mage, and Max is our technology expert. Even if they like showing off their weird circumstances."

"Sorry." Max said. "But she's the new kid. It's tradition at this point."

Derick closed his holographic spell book. "Gets them every time." he said.

"Whatever." Alice said, flicking her wrist, blue-white pentagrams covering their mouths. "It's still confusing. We're trying to make this easy for her, not as hard as possible."

Derick waved impotently at the barrier in front of him, glaring at Alice. Max just rolled his eyes and went back to working on whatever he had been doing on his laptop.

"Well, we still have a few more people to meet. Come on!" Alice said, dragging Hitomi by the hand past the two silenced boys.

"How long..." Hitomi started.

"About forty seconds." Alice said. "They'll be fine."

Hitomi nodded. She had figured it would be pretty short term, but Alice did seem to have a little bit of impulsiveness behind her actions. Better safe than sorry.

"Just to clarify," Hitomi said, looking back at the two. "Derick is a mage, and Max is the tech wizard, right?"

"Yes." Alice said. "Everything else is details."

Hitomi nodded. "So, that gives us a leader, a utility mage, a combat mage, and a technology expert." She paused. "I'm guessing one pure warrior, one thief, and one healer are left?"

"Well... not exactly." Alice said. "This is the real world, not a RPG. Things don't work out quite that neatly. But close enough, I suppose." She paused. "And I'm not a mage. I'm a spectral witch."

Hitomi nodded. "Sorry." She looked around the hallway, trying to see the rooms beyond. "Who next?"

Alice tilted her head upwards, thinking. "Well, Fox will only be found if he wants to be, and Silvia is probably in the library, so most likely Lilly."

They continued down the passageway, Alice telling Hitomi who's room was who's. At the fifth one down, she paused and knocked.

"Lilly!" She yelled. "I have a visitor!"

"Oh, you do?" A soft female voice came from inside. "Well, please, come in!"

Alice opened the door, leading Hitomi inside. The inside was lit softly, and a sweet fragrance filled the air. There was a very plush looking bed, adorned with gossamer white sheets. A young woman, perhaps in her mid-twenty's, was sitting at a desk, combing her silky blood-red hair in front of a mirror. She turned to them.

"Oh, hello!" She said, looking at Hitomi with a smile. "And who might you be?"

"Shizuki Hitomi." She said, instantly feeling trusting of the woman. "But you can call me Hitomi."

"What a beautiful name. Tell me, Hitomi, where are you from?" The woman asked kindly. Hitomi blushed sightly.

"Well, I'm from the greater Mitakihara city region in Japan. Though I doubt you've heard of it; it's only a city of about a million on a small, disconnected world."

"Do you like it there?" The woman asked kindly.

"Well, it's sort of boring, but I have lots of fun with my friends." Hitomi said. She found herself very willing to tell this woman everything she asked. After all, she seemed so nice, so trustworthy.

"And who are these friends?" The woman asked.

"Kaname Madoka and Miki Sayaka." Hitomi said. "Oh, and Alice, now." There was a slight hesitation. "And, well..." she paused.

"There's a boy, right?" Lilly said. "Who's he?"

"Kamijou Kyousuke." she said without hesitation. Why had she hesitated before? She should trust Lilly. "But I'm not sure it's mutual."

"Uh..." Alice said, pulling on Hitomi's shirt. "Hitomi, snap out of it."

Hitomi shook her head, Alice's words bringing her back. She looked to Lilly with shock, and she smiled back at her. "Don't feel too bad, Hitomi. You were actually more resistant to it than most, believe it or not. I actually needed to prompt you. Usually, people just tell me their life stories when I ask for a name."

"So..." Hitomi said, still shrinking back from Lilly slightly. "You're an interrogator."

"As an aside." Lilly said. "I can't really control that part."

"She's a siren." Alice explained. "It's just a natural property of her voice."

"Oh." Hitomi said. "Sorry. I thought you were trying to control me on purpose."

"Why would I do that?" Lilly laughed, and Hitomi couldn't help but forgive her. Literally. "I can't be whispering in your ear all the time, and that seems like a really good way to lose a potential ally. Trust me, if I could stop this, I would. Still, I'm sure we'll find some use for it."

"So, what do you normally do?" Hitomi asked politely.

"I'm a beastwarden." Lilly said. "Animals listen to me. It's much more useful than you think, trust me. Plus, I'm decent with a bow." Lilly sighed. "Though I don't really have that much combat experience, to be frank."

"Oh, don't worry." Hitomi said. "I have none at all, so I won't be able to tell the difference."

"I'm not sure that's comforting, Hitomi." Alice said.

"I'm sure you'll pick it up quickly." Lilly said. "You seem like an intelligent girl."

Hitomi beamed. "Thank you!" She said with enthusiasm.

"Well, if you'll excuse us..." Alice said, dragging Hitomi to the door. Hitomi resisted slightly. She wanted to stay here with Lilly.

"Of course." Lilly waved the two of them off. "Please, finish your tour."

Hitomi nodded, following Alice out of the room. She felt a fog lifting from her as she stepped out of the room, and shuddered.

"Yeah, that's Lilly." Alice said. "We're pretty sure she's on our side, but, well, I'm not entirely sure we'd be able to tell if she was just using us, to be honest."

Hitomi nodded. "You seemed fine in there. I'm guessing you used some magic?"

Alice shook her head. "No. She never addressed me, that's all. And even I was getting pulled in at some points." She sighed. "When I said there are no rules, I wasn't completely right. There is one. No one is allowed to talk to Lilly alone, for any reason. Still, she's agreed to help us, and so we have to just hope she's telling the truth."

"I see." Hitomi shuddered again. "So, who's next?"

"Uh..." Alice paused. "Well, I guess it's back downstairs to the Library. Silvia's usually there."

Hitomi nodded. "Sounds good."

The two walked in silence for a few seconds, reaching the stairs and beginning their decent. Hitomi opened her mouth, then closed it again. Alice looked up at her, smiling. "What?" She asked. "I said I'm open to questions. Don't worry, I won't think it's stupid."

Hitomi sighed. "Sorry. Well, I mean, I'm pretty sure that the answer is just 'magic', but... Well, I can't imagine that all of you are speaking Japanese. How can we understand each other?"

"Yeah, magic." Alice said. "Sorry."

"Fine by me, as long as it keeps working." Hitomi said. "Will it work for written words too?"

"Probably not." Alice said. "It's just a interpersonal communication thing. You won't even be able to understand anyone outside of our group." She giggled as Hitomi sighed. "We can get you a better one soon enough. For a quick, nearly costless spell, I think this one does a pretty good job keeping everyone sane long enough for the more intensive one. After all, we had no idea if you'd be joining us when Eve first contacted you, and we weren't going to expend the time and energy to cast a big, complex translation spell on you if you might have just said no."

"Fair enough." Hitomi said. "Still, I would like to be able to read things in the Library, seeing as we have one. Who knows, I might find something useful. After all, as you said, I'm a schoolgirl. Right now, the only useful skill I know I have is research ability. It's not much, but I might as well help where I can."

"Fair enough." Alice said. "I get the feeling, trust me. Just because we're young doesn't mean we're not useful!" Alice stuck her chin up into the air.

Hitomi stifled a giggle. "I wouldn't worry about that; you seem very useful. You are the utility spellcaster, after all."

"Yeah, I am!" Alice said. "I do plenty of useful things for the whole party!" She seemed somewhat defensive for some reason.

Hitomi didn't respond, letting the conversation die as they reached the Library doors. Alice opened them slowly. "Be quiet." She hushed Hitomi. "It is a library."

Hitomi stepped inside, looking around. Shelves of books, floor to ceiling, filled the room. It wasn't the largest library she had been in, but it was certainly big. The books all looked ancient. The middle of the room was cleared, a few desks and a couple of tables sitting there. The surface of two of them were covered in open books and chemical equipment. A woman, perhaps in her forty's, was watching a vial of green liquid bubble slowly, seemingly fully engrossed.

"Watch yourself, you little disaster." The woman said, and Hitomi could detect ire mixed with sarcastic distaste. She looked up from her work and rolled her eyes upon seeing Hitomi. "Oh, great. There are two of you now."

"Don't be like that, Silvia." Alice chided. "Or I'll break all your vials this time."

"I'd like to see you try." Silvia laughed. "You wouldn't get half way done before you succumbed to the fumes of something." She reached under the table, taking a flask from the shelf below her. It was filled with a clear liquid, which she mixed quickly with a deep purple syrupy substance. There was a puff of smoke, and she stuck two stirring rods into the mixture, pulling them out a few second later covered in a semi-solid pink substance. She held them out to the girls. "Well, here you go. Don't you go telling Eve I ruined your dinner, though, or that'll be the end of it."

"I won't." Alice said, taking the proffered sticks. She handed one to Hitomi. "Come on, take a bite!" Alice said. "It's perfectly safe." She bit it, her face contorting for a moment. Alice shook her head, then grinned. "Go on! It tastes a bit weird, but it's not terribly bitter or anything."

Hitomi looked at her with some suspicion, but took a small bite. Her mouth was filled with a not unpleasant but overwhelmingly sour taste, which faded into a sweet, thick syrup as it melted on her tongue. She shuddered, then smiled. "Not half bad." She said.

"Silvia, as you may have guessed, is an alchemist." Alice said. "She's a darn good one, too."

"That's right." Silvia said, a poof of smoke covering her face as she tinkered with some of her concoctions. "You know, once you get tired of that spell-casting mumbo-jumbo, I'd be willing to teach you. You certainly have the mind for memorizing components if I ever saw one."

"I'm sure you'd love to have a little assistant to run the menial tasks." Alice countered. "But I'll stick with my witchcraft for now, if it's the same to you."

"Eh, you're a disaster waiting to happen anyway." Silvia waved at them, not looking up. "Shoo, out with you, before you go and hex something important."

Alice laughed, and took Hitomi's hand. "Come on. We still have a fox to find."

"Good luck with that." Silvia barked, her laughter coming out in short bursts.

Hitomi and Alice left the Library, the door shutting behind them. "She seemed nice." Hitomi ventured.

"Don't let that fool you." Alice said. "She's just the worst." she laughed. "It's our sworn duty to pester her, as she's the oldest and we're the youngest."

"I see." Hitomi said.

"Now..." Alice looked around. "Where could the fox be hiding..."

"Boo."

Hitomi nearly jumped into the air. A young man of twenty-something had his arms around them, standing between the two girls. "And who would this new face be?" The man asked Alice.

"Hitomi." Alice said. "You really shouldn't do that, Fox. You've made the poor girl go for a high jump record!"

"I'm fine." Hitomi said, calming down. "Though I would appreciate it if you didn't do that every time you showed up." She turned to face the man, getting a better look at him. He had orange hair and two bushy orange ears, and was wearing a orange shirt and orange pants. He looked like the least camouflaged person she had ever seen, certainly nothing like she was expecting.

"This is Fox." Alice said. "He's our stealth and striker. His weapon of choice is a battle-axe, and his combat style is swing until the other thing stops moving."

"I am the sneakiest person in the world, and all I want to do is run into battle screaming at the top of my lungs." Fox said. "It's really frustrating, to be honest. Still, my stealth has its uses, I suppose."

"His footfalls have a volume of -2.7 decibels at one meter." Alice said. "And he fades into the background at will. People are naturally inclined to look away from him, and to forget him if they do see him. He could walk right between us dressed as he is right now until he was halfway down the hall and then call us, and we'd be surprised as to how he got there."

"I don't know." Fox said from about ten meters in front of them. He was casually opening a banana, leaning on the open kitchen door. Hitomi blinked. "I can't help but trip your proximity spells, Alice. I'm sure you'd figure it out eventually."

"Ohhhh." Alice shuddered. "That really gets to me, Fox."

"Sorry, sorry." Fox said. "But I figured a demonstration would help Hitomi."

"Oh, I definitely believe it." Hitomi enthused. "No question about that." she looked around. "This place is really amazing. A siren beastmaster, a stealthy berserker, a technological mage, a magical technology expert, an angel leader, a candy-making alchemist, and a spectral witch." she shook her head.

"Oh, and an anime schoolgirl!" Alice said, nudging Hitomi. "Don't forget that."

"Yes, and an anime schoolgirl." Hitomi said. "What a strange group."

"Well, I figure that it has to be a wide enough range to cover everything we need." Eve said, entering the hall from the kitchen. A wonderful smell wafted in from the open door. "What better a collection to save the world?"

"Whatcha cooking?" Alice said, leaning in to look through the door. Eve smiled.

"Well, I figured since everyone seemed to be up, I might as well make us a midnight snack." She rustled Alice's hair, knocking off her hat. Alice grinned up at Eve. "I'm sure you'll all enjoy it, if you give me another five minutes."

"Okay!" Alice beamed. "That'll give me enough time to show Hitomi my room!" She danced away, waving Hitomi on. "Come on!"

Hitomi laughed, following. She was sure this happiness couldn't last forever, sure that there was certain to be real conflict at some point. Fifty-six days, twelve hours. Still, that was no reason not to enjoy the moment. Whatever else happened, this had certainly been the most interesting hour of her life so far.

Alice lead her to the second room from the stairwell, entering with a flourish. "Welcome to my witch's lair!" She cackled. "Make yourself at home."

Hitomi entered the room. It was well lit inside by hundreds of deep red candles, which floated in the air around the room. There was a small bookshelf in the corner with several very large, ancient looking tomes, next to a desk equipped with parchment, inkwell, and feather-pen. A table with a large pentagram adorned with magical symbols was on the far wall, next to the bed. A few spell books were open on it, illustrations of herbs and magic circles on the pages. A human scull, missing the lower jaw, was in the center of the pentagram. The bed was quite large for her, though slightly smaller than Hitomi's was, to be fair. It was covered completely in pitch black sheets and covers. The pillows were blood-red, as were the drapes. A black and purple chest was at the foot of the bed, a rack of vials with what looked like human blood sitting on top of it. Alice jumped into the bed, bouncing once and sitting up, facing Hitomi. "Well, come on." She said. "Join me!"

Hitomi glanced around apprehensively. She was pretty sure Alice wouldn't do anything to her, but still, the atmosphere in the room was almost suffocatingly evil. Cautiously, she sat down on the bed next to her.

"The room is... nice." Hitomi commented.

Alice giggled. "I know, right? I always feel so invigorated when I'm in here."

"So, you're really a witch, then." Hitomi said. "Like, the dark magic, evil curses, deals with the devil, honest-to-goodness classical witch."

"Yep." Alice said. "I even have the black cat." Jaxx appeared suddenly at her feet, leaping onto the bed and into Alice's lap. She grinned at Hitomi. "Hitomi, would you be willing to trade me your soul for magical power?"

"Would I..." Hitomi blinked, going sheet white. She felt herself shaking. Alice laughed.

"Oh, the look on your face." Alice said, shaking her head. Hitomi breathed a sigh of relief. "It's not really all that bad, you know." Alice said. "And a lot less scary then it sounds."

Hitomi's nervous smile fell again. "You're... serious?"

"Yep." Alice said. "Come on, Hitomi! You'd make such a great witch!" She looked at her happily. "Please, won't you join my spectrum?"

"I mean..." Hitomi shrunk back as Alice leaned in to her.

"Come on, you're getting a really good deal here!" Alice said. "Usually witches have to trade their souls to the devil for power, but I'm a spectrum leader. You can go through me instead!" Alice grinned. "I don't have anyone in my spectrum yet, so you could chose any color you liked."

"Your spectrum?" Hitomi said, afraid to leave the bed lest Alice take offense. She wasn't sure if Alice had ulterior motives or if she really just couldn't think of any issues with this, but either way she had suddenly become potently very dangerous.

"Right." Alice said, nodding and smiling at Hitomi. "I told you, I'm a spectral witch. I'm my spectrum's white witch, the spectrum leader. I have enough control to have five other witches in my spectrum right now. Of course, no one wants to be part of my spectrum because I'm not very powerful, so I haven't gotten anyone yet." Alice frowned. "But I know I'd make a great spectrum leader." She looked into Hitomi's eyes. "I wouldn't do anything to you, you know. As I said, it's a lot less scary than it sounds. We're really just entering a contract. You pledge yourself to me, and I make you a witch. You'll be magically bound to me, but I promise not to do anything with that. And when I say that you'd be giving me your soul, I mean that I'd have control over what you could do with it. You couldn't, for instance, trade it for anything else unless I gave permission. Otherwise, it would be like nothing changed."

Hitomi began to clam down. "Really?" She asked. "So I just couldn't give to any one else?" She paused. "That doesn't sound that bad."

Alice nodded. "Now, with you being bound to me and all, I could do all kinds of terrible things to you, or make you do all kinds of tasks for me, which is what most spectrum leaders get out of the deal. But I wouldn't hurt my friend, you know that!" She giggled. "Really, this is all magical talk for me becoming basically your superior officer."

"And you're sure it works like that?" Hitomi said.

"Of course!" Alice said. "I would never lie to you."

Hitomi paused. She was fairly certain that Alice wasn't trying to trick her; from what she could tell, she really, truly thought of this as something to help her. Alice looked at her with earnest, wide eyes, waiting for her response. Hitomi sighed. "Okay. It looks like this is the easiest way for me to get magic, anyway – perhaps the only one. And if I have to sell my soul to someone, I suppose you're better than most."

"Yes!" Alice giggled, grabbing Hitomi in a hug. "You won't regret this, Hitomi, I promise! We're going to make such a team!" She danced off the bed, going to her desk and taking out a few sheets of paper. Hitomi leaned in to Jaxx, who was still sitting on the bed.

"She's not making a mistake, right?" Hitomi asked.

"It's more complicated then she thinks." Jaxx informed Hitomi. "And I'm sure some hardship will come of it. But she's right about the most important part, which is that she only exercises control over you at will. She has to attach the strings herself."

Hitomi nodded. "In that case, I think everything will be fine."

Alice took one of the vials of blood and opened it, dipping her fingers in and streaking them across the parchment. She held the sheets outstretched, her blood leaking into the pages slowly, a crimson spot spreading from the point of contact. She shook the pages violently, as if she was unrolling a scroll. There was a flash of white light, and the pages transformed, turning dark and becoming covered in glowing white text. Alice handed the demonic contract to Hitomi with a smile and a flourish. "Just sign your name on the third and fifth page, and we're done."

Hitomi took the pages. The text was large, scrolling, and written in strange runes, but Hitomi attempted to read it anyway. If Alice had made it, the translation spell should still work. And, indeed, after a brief translation gap, the words began to form into familiar shapes.

_In exchange for certain magical powers and abilities, the contractee must read, sign, and date this document indicating that the undersigned has read, understood, and agreed to all terms and conditions that apply to them. This contract enters effect immediately upon the contractee's signature, and may not be modified in any capacity after signing. All agreements are final._

_I. Agreements._

_1\. Rights._

_The contractor and the contractee both reserve certain rights, enumerated below. Immediately upon the final signing of this document, the undersigned relinquishes any rights not included in the document. The rights of the contractee are:_

_The contractee reserves the right to free will._

_The contractee reserves the right to life._

_The contractee reserves the right to self terminate._

_The rights of the contractor, hereafter refereed to as the spectrum leader, are:_

_The spectrum leader reserves the right to modify the terms of this contract at their will and without warning, excepting the reserved rights of the contractee._

_The spectrum leader reserves the right to dissolve the contract without the consent of the contractee at any time for any reason._

_2\. Benefits._

_The undersigned, upon the final signing of this contract, is entitled to certain benefits. These benefits include:_

_The granting of certain magical powers and abilities, detailed in full in section II subsection 2._

_Freedom of movement to and from any location under the control of any member of the spectrum._

_The protection of any member of the spectrum._

_One (1) Witches barrier. (Non-replaceable.)_

_One (1) personal focus. (Non-replaceable.)_

_3\. Responsibilities._

_The undersigned, upon the final signing of this contract, is obligated to preform certain duties, and relinquish certain items and abilities to the contractor. These obligations include, but are not limited to:_

_Follow any and all orders given by their spectrum leader._

_Provide protection to any spectrum member, regardless of personal risk._

_Relinquish control of their soul to their spectrum leader._

_Develop their magical ability to better serve their spectrum leader._

_Relinquish any and all honors to their spectrum leader._

_Inform their spectrum leader of any and all abilities._

_The spectrum leader reserves the right to enforce the completion of these responsibilities in any way they deem appropriate._

_II. Terms and Conditions_

_1\. Use of powers._

_Upon the final signing of the contract, the contractee is permitted to make use of their powers in any manor they might desire, excepting any case which invalidates part of this contract. The contractee, immediately upon final signing of this document, will be designated as a spectral witch. This title implies certain regulations as to what situations are appropriate for the undersigned to make use of their magical powers and abilities. Situations in which the use of magic is permitted include:_

_Any time the contractee is unable to contact their spectrum leader._

_Any time the contractee is in physical danger._

_Any time..._

Hitomi sighed, looking away. It was thick legal nonsense, as far as she could tell. She shook her head twice to clear it. Alice was still smiling at her. "Oh, feel free to read the whole thing." she said. "I'm not trying to hide anything from you."

"I know." Hitomi put the document down. "I trust you. I'm sure everything is fine." she turned to the third page. "Do you have a pen I could borrow?"

Alice snapped her fingers, summoning a small, stamp like object. She handed it to Hitomi, who turned it over curiously. It seemed to have a button on the top. When she pressed it, a small ring of blades extended out about three millimeters from the base. They looked very sharp. "You sign in blood." Alice explained. "Just nick your finger and put a dab on the doted lines."

Hitomi hesitated for a second, put the stamping mechanism on her thumb, and pressed the button. It stung, but wasn't really all that painful. She pressed her thumb to the blank line on the third page, leaving a clear ring of blood behind. She turned to the fifth page and replicated the mark.

"Okay." Alice said, dipping her finger in the open vial of blood, marking a few lines quickly herself. "So, just a few preference questions. You can be a violet, blue, green, yellow, or red witch as part of my spectrum. Is there any color you specifically prefer? There's no difference in the positions at all, but it changes the color of your magic circles and focus. The little things, you know?"

"Um, I guess I'll take green." Hitomi said. Alice laughed.

"I thought you might." She said, a few lines of white text adding themselves to the document spontaneously. "Okay. Now, what do you want your magic focus to be? It can be anything, but should be something small so that you can keep it with you easily at all times." Alice reached into her shirt and pulled out a dark, black gemstone on a silver chain. "This is mine." She slid it off her neck, placing it in Hitomi's hand. "Careful with it. I can't cast magic if it gets lost."

Hitomi looked at the gem in her hand. It was beautiful, almost stunningly so. She tried to look through it, placing it in front of one of the candles, but no light shone through. The sliver chain which the gem was set in was very plain, though the housing for the gem itself was somewhat more intricate, filamentous lines of silver webbing keeping it locked in place. The edge was set in a simple silver ring, a few runes carved into the edge. She looked at Alice. She wasn't even looking at it, her attention drawn to the contract as she read through it, making any last second corrections. Hitomi was filled with a sense of importance. She looked back at the gem. Somehow, she doubted that witches usually let other people handle their focuses, certainly not with such lax watch. It suddenly dawned on Hitomi that Alice was very, very naive.

"If it's all the same to you, I'd like something just like this one." Hitomi said, careful handing it back to Alice. "Perhaps with a square gem instead of a circular one."

"Easily done." Alice said. A few more lines of text were added to the document, and a sixth page appeared. "Well, that's it." She handed the contract back to Hitomi. "One last line to sign on the sixth page, and you're done." Alice said. "Just a little blood on the last line, and you're a 100% certified spectral witch."

Hitomi felt apprehension build in her chest. She knew that this was rash. She didn't know nearly enough to be sure she was making the right choice. But, with only fifty-six days on the clock, she was going to need to take some risks at some point. The earlier she made a mistake, the more likely it would be that she would be able to correct it in time. And, besides, if Alice was any indication, being a witch was pretty cool.

She took a deep breath, turned to the last page, and placed her thumb on the line. She expected the contract to burst into flame, or to feel terrible demonic energy fill her body. Nothing happened for about four and a half seconds. Hitomi let her breath out slowly, sighing. That was that.

Slowly, faintly at first, the rings of blood Hitomi had left on the pages began to glow emerald green. The light grew. Hitomi felt her thumb beginning to tingle, the sensation spreading to the rest of her body. The text on the pages began to turn green as well. A wind started in the room, the flames of the candles bending and waving wildly. The tingling got worse, and Hitomi began to feel uncomfortably warm. Without warning, the contract vaporized spontaneously into green dust. The wind grew. There was a flash of green light, and all the candles in the room went out in a audible whoosh. Hitomi gasped in shock as the heat built. Her body was now glowing, casting evil looking green shadows about the otherwise dark room. She floated off the floor, hovering nearly half a meter off the ground. The light grew stronger still. She gasped again, the burning becoming terribly painful for a moment, passing through her in waves.

She felt something touch her, hold her. She looked down. Alice had grabbed her hand, smiling up at her. "You'll be fine. Stop resisting the power. Let it flow through you." She gave her a squeeze. "I'm right here. You're doing great."

Hitomi shuddered, then let herself relax. Let it flow. She could do this. She took another deep breath, calming herself. There was one final moment of violent heat, and then she felt the power course through her in unstoppable waves, filling every part of her with its light. Heat-less green flame erupted from hands and feet, and the light jumped dramatically in brightness. It wasn't painful anymore. Rather, it was invigorating in a way she couldn't have imagined before. She felt more alive than she ever had. Hitomi began to laugh. Her light filled the room, brighter than the sun. Her hair whipped back from her face with the tremendous winds. Hitomi laughed again. She couldn't help herself; she felt so alive, so powerful! She extended her hand slowly, deliberately, somehow knowing that it was the right thing to do. She gripped the air, feeling a cool, solid object deposit itself in her hand. There was a final, blinding flash of light, and then the room went dark.

Hitomi fell to the floor, managing to land on her feet. Alice clapped rapidly, let out out a shrill trilling shreek of happiness, and hug-tackled Hitomi to the floor. "Yes! Yes!" She laughed, Hitomi joining her. Eventually, Alice got off of Hitomi, laying down next to her in the dark. "Are you alright?"

"Alright?" Hitomi said, laughing. "I feel better than I ever have in my life!" She turned her head towards Alice. "Tell me, how long does this feeling last?"

"From my experience, at least seven years." Alice said. Despite the fact that she couldn't see the other girl, Hitomi could tell that she was grinning. "It fades a bit, but I haven't really lost it yet."

Hitomi giggled. "Oh, this is wonderful. So, I'm a witch now. Who would have guessed." she sighed contently. "Not what I thought was going to happen today, but I suppose I can't complain."

"Alice! Hitomi!" There was a bang, and the door flew open. Eve rushed in, her blade drawn. Fox stood behind her with his battle-axe. "What happened here! Are you two okay?"

Hitomi and Alice looked at each other, and started to laugh. "Oops." Alice said, after about five seconds. "I suppose the two of us lying here on the ground in the dark after a huge magical outburst would worry you. Don't worry, everything's fine."

"Fine?" Hitomi said, smiling up at the others. "Everything is great!"

Eve hung her head. "You made her a witch, didn't you." She said flatly. "Alice..."

"I'm sorry." Alice said. "I know I shouldn't have, but you said that she didn't have any magic! I just wanted to help."

Eve shook her head slowly, then sighed. "No, it's fine. I just wish you would have told me first, so we could have told Hitomi all of her options before she made such a... drastic, permanent choice. I'm not mad, Alice. I know you won't do anything. But still." She turned to Hitomi. "You, however, are in trouble. You just went and signed away your life to someone you'd only known for about an hour. That shows complete lack of basic common sense. These things aren't a joke, Hitomi. Just because in your world you can't sell your soul doesn't mean you can't do it here. If Alice felt like it, she could torture you for the rest of your life for fun, and there isn't a thing anyone could do to stop her short of killing one of the two of you. She could order you to tear your own hair out by hand, or to bite off the tips of your fingers, and you would be forced to obey. Heck, she could order you to kill your friends and bring her the corpses, and you'd be unable to resist her command. What you've done is very, very serious."

"I..." Alice said, putting a hand to her mouth. "I could never..."

"That's just it." Eve said. "You could. You really, really could. I don't even think you realize to exactly what degree you have control of Hitomi's life, now. The purpose of her existence is now to serve you, whether you intended that or not."

Alice began to cry. Hitomi felt a cold, chilling feeling sweep her body. She suddenly felt frighteningly empty.

"Eve, that's enough." Fox said, putting a hand on Eve's shoulder. "Yeah, what they did was dumb, but I think you've gone a bit to far. We know full well Alice won't do anything like that. And think about poor Hitomi, the girl you whisked into a magical world with no explanation and then expected to somehow have a good grasp of the workings of complex magical contracts." Eve opened her mouth to defend herself, but Fox cut her off before she could start. "Yes, I know you just want them to be very aware of the seriousness of what they've done. But I think they get it, Eve. They aren't five, you know. They still have growing to do, sure, but they're old enough to make choices for themselves. It's too late to stop it, and you know that full well. Initiation is the most important day in a young witch's life. Let them enjoy it, if you haven't ruined that already."

Eve growled, then sighed. "I'm sorry. You're right. Everything will be fine, I know. Still, I wish you had at least told me first." she leaned down, looking directly into Hitomi's eyes. "What I described is worst case only. I'm sorry I scared you. This is my fault, really. I brought you here, so I feel at least some measure of responsibility for your well being. I know you'll be fine this time. But if you do something like this in a different circumstance..." Eve sighed. "I just want you to be okay. I can only think of how awful it would be if things had gone worse. You two will make a great spectrum, I'm sure. Just, please, think before you do something like this again, okay?"

"I..." Alice said, looking up at Hitomi. "I'm so sorry. I didn't think... I never meant..." Hitomi saw Alice avert her eyes when she looked at her, unable to meet her gaze. "Please don't hate me." she said quietly.

"Of course I don't hate you." Hitomi said, shaking her head. "I agreed to this too, remember? Besides, you need to expressly exercise control for it to take effect." She forced herself to smile. "You're my spectrum leader now." she nudged Alice. "Are you really going to cry in front of your new green witch?"

Alice sniffed, then looked at Hitomi with determination. "No. That would be unbecoming of a powerful spectrum leader. I should be strong in front of my spectra." She shook her head a few times, a weak smile finding its way back to her lips. "I promise that I'll make this as easy for you as I can, Hitomi."

Hitomi hugged Alice, who hugged her back. Fox nodded to Eve. "See? They'll be fine. The only thing you've done is ruin the moment."

"I guess you're right." Eve sighed. "Well, you two, whenever you're ready, I've finished the food. Feel free to take as much time as you need, though." With a final glance at the two girls, Eve and Fox walked out, closing the door behind them.

Fifteen seconds of silence passed. Neither Hitomi nor Alice said anything. Eventually, Alice separated herself from the embrace. "I should probably re-light the candles, huh?" She said, laughing softly. "It's a bit ridiculous, us sitting there on the floor in the dark."

"Yeah, a bit." Hitomi agreed. Alice's face was temporarily lit by her magical circles, and the candles re-lit with a pulse of energy. The room was an absolute mess from Hitomi's magical storm. Alice looked around, sighing.

"Great." She shook her head. "Look at the mess you've made." She smiled at Hitomi. "Hey, how about I teach you your first spell? I could use the help cleaning."

"That sounds wonderful." Hitomi said. "A cleaning spell? I can see that being useful almost immediately."

Alice nodded. "Do you think you can find any paper about? Learning spells is very easy, but does require some visual aid."

"Uh..." Hitomi glanced around the room, spotting a few sheets blown under the bed. She picked them up, handing them to Alice. "Are these good?"

"Perfect." Alice said, summoning a feather-pen and drawing a simple magical circle on the page. "Now, Hitomi, do you still have that blood-marker I gave you?"

Hitomi glanced around, but couldn't find it. "Sorry, I must have dropped it in the chaos."

"That's fine." Alice snapped her fingers, summoning another one. "You'll need to trace the circle in blood to cast the spell the first time. After that, you should be able to do it just from your focus."

"Okay..." Hitomi quickly reopened the wound on her thumb, carefully tracing the lines with her blood. "I suppose this explains the vials of blood." she commented.

"Yeah. I draw a cup or two at a time so that I don't need to keep pricking my finger every time I want to learn a new spell." Alice said. "That usually lasts me about a week, but I learn an awfully large number of spells a day. You shouldn't need nearly that much."

"All I have to do is trace this, right?" Hitomi said.

"Yep." Alice said. "There's an art to being able to make them yourself, but that will come with time."

Hitomi finished the circle. There was a brief pause, and then the circle began to glow with emerald light. Hitomi saw a green magical circle float above the page, exactly like the ones Alice made when casting spells. Despite the somewhat dampened tone the whole event had taken on after Eve's speech, she couldn't help but feel strangely happy. She was casting magic. This was something that she could just do now. It was so easy.

Their was a rustling, and the clutter around Hitomi cleared and organized itself in a flurry. Books flew back to their shelves, sheets and pillows making there way back to the bed. Hitomi giggled.

"Not bad." Alice said. "Especially for a first time. Now, try casting it again."

"How?" Hitomi said.

"Just imagine it in your mind." Alice said. Hitomi frowned, then gasped.

"I... can see it so clearly!" She exclaimed.

"That's magic for you." Alice grinned. "The hard part is remembering what spell does what, and finding the one you need quickly, not actually memorizing the circles. The magic does that part for you automatically. Once you've cast a spell once, you can always cast it again."

Hitomi nodded. She extended her hand, like she had seen Alice do. Nothing happened. She frowned. "What am I doing wrong?"

Alice laughed. "You don't have your focus on, silly. You can't cast spells unless you either draw the circles in blood or have your focus on. For reasons that are likely obvious, most witches just use the focus."

Hitomi nodded. "I must have dropped it when Eve came in." she said, looking around. She found her focus very quickly. The green gem sparkled in the light beautifully, a simple but elegant golden chain allowing Hitomi to easily place it around her neck. Again, she stuck her arm out, thinking of the circle. With a flash of green light, the circle appeared in the air before her, and the spell took effect again, clearing more of the clutter from the floor. Hitomi laughed. "I did it." She jumped into the air, clapping her hands together. "I can actually cast spells now."

"Heh." Alice said, waving her hand across her body, a series of seven magical circles left in its path. With a final flick, the spells went into effect, the remainder of the room quickly returning to order. "Oh, this is just the beginning, believe me."

Hitomi nodded. "I can't imagine knowing sixty thousand spells. You must be able to do anything."

"Hardly." Alice said. "I'm not very powerful, and my strong point is in utility magic, so I can't really do any of the higher level spells, and even the few combat spells I do know aren't all that impressive. Still, I do have a bit of an advantage. For whatever reason, my head's better organized than most. Most witches have a hard time keeping more than one hundred or so spells in their memory at once, but I can easily access any spell I've ever cast. Nothing magical, I just happen to be good at that. Still, most witches know one hundred spells well, and I know sixty thousand poorly. Most of them I've only ever cast once, maybe twice."

"Still, having such a large selection must be useful." Hitomi said. "Especially for a dedicated utility spellcaster like yourself. The group depends on you being able to always have the exact right tool for any situation, no matter how random or unlikely."

"Yeah..." Alice said, letting her voice trail off.

"What is it?" Hitomi asked. "Every time I mention your role, you seem to get upset." She paused. "Are you frustrated with your job? I mean, sure, it's not as cool as being a combat expert, but it's just as important."

"No, no..." Alice said. "It's just... well..." She looked at Hitomi sheepishly. "They've never actually let me join them on a mission. I have no idea if I'll be useful or not, because I've never actually been allowed to help. But, now that you're here, and Eve considers the party complete, I bet they'll let me join in. After all, things are going to get really serious soon, I'd think."

"Oh." Hitomi said. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"Eh, it's fine." Alice said. "I'm sure it'll change soon enough."

Hitomi looked at Alice. She stared off into the distance for a few seconds, then turned back to Hitomi with a smile. "But that's enough about me. What about you?" She giggled. "I heard you mention some friends. What are they like?"

"Oh. Um..." Hitomi looked up. "Well, Miki Sayaka is a bit impulsive, and a bit naive, but she laughs a lot and always pulls through when you need her. You're very much like her, actually, except that you seem a little smarter but perhaps a little less open. Kaname Madoka is a really kind, sweet girl. She's very reserved, but I wouldn't call her shy. I always feel happy when she shows up. She just has that kind of aura about her, you know?" Hitomi sighed. "I wonder, would they be jealous if I told them about becoming a witch?"

"Why don't you find out?" Alice said. "I mean, it's not like the fact that witches exist is supposed to be some kind of big secret. You can just go ahead and tell them, you know." she giggled. "Hey, and when they decide to get in on the action, send them my way, will you?"

"Heh..." Hitomi laughed softly, then sighed. "No, I can't do that. Eve told me that knowledge of what was going on made people more likely to be attacked. I have to keep this a secret, at least until this whole world ending thing is over."

"Oh, bummer!" Alice said. "But I suppose that makes sense. Oh well. Keeping secrets from your friends isn't a nice feeling, I know, but you'll be doing it for their sakes."

Hitomi sighed. "Yeah..." She looked at Alice for a moment before a thought dawned on her. "Hey, Alice?" She asked.

"Yeah?" Alice looked at her.

"Um, well, I just remembered..." Hitomi said, looking down. "There's something my friends and I came up with to make our friendship hold. It's not magic, but it is a promise, and it means something to me."

"If you need to have a secret handshake or something, I don't mind." Alice said. "People do stupid things for their friends all the time. If it'll make you feel better, I don't care."

"Well..." Hitomi went to the desk, retrieving the feather-pen and writing a few lines on a piece of parchment. "Will you read this?"

Alice read the paper quickly, smiling up at Hitomi as she finished. "What were you so worried about?" she asked. "This isn't stupid at all."

"So you'll read it, then?" Hitomi asked.

"Of course." Alice said. "Are you going to start, or should I?"

"No, I'll go first." Hitomi said, taking in a deep breath. She held her hands out to Alice, who took them in hers.

"I swear to never forget you." Hitomi said softly.

"I swear to always protect you." Alice said strongly. She let a few seconds pass. "I swear to never forget you." Alice said, looking deep into Hitomi's eyes.

"I swear to always protect you." Hitomi said. The candles flickered.

"Forever together, and never apart," they said in perfect, unpracticed unison. "I'll keep you forever locked safe in my heart."

Seven seconds of silence passed. Alice started to laugh. "Never mind." She said. "That actually was pretty stupid." She shook her head. "Still, it's sweet."

"Well, we were only nine at the time." Hitomi said, blushing. "It's not going to be prize winning poetry."

"No, I get it." Alice said. "If it's important to you, it's important to me."

Hitomi leaned against Alice, closing her eyes. "Did you cast a spell on me?" Hitomi said softly. "Because I don't usually become best friends with someone in under an hour."

"I think it's just the new world. You said I reminded you strongly of one of your friends, so you attached yourself to normalcy where you could find it." Alice said softly. "I never lived in a world where I wasn't clearly aware of magic, inter-universal travel, and fantastic creatures. I've been a spectral witch since I was six. All of this must be horribly shaking for you, whether you realize it or not. Your entire world has changed in a flash, turned on its head in an instant. Of course you're looking for an ally." She nudged Hitomi. "That doesn't make it any less real."

Hitomi sighed. "This year is looking like it's going to be very interesting." she shook her head. "I don't even know yet exactly what we're facing, and we have only a month and a half to stop it."

"The king of the devourers is building his assault in the high tower of Amerki, and his army will sweep the world in a reign of absolute destruction at sunrise on the summer solstice." Alice said. "Blood will flow into the rivers and the plants will shrivel and die as they pass, spreading their corruption. Eve says once the army starts its march, there's nothing we can do. Once the sun rises, one devourer is created for every sentient creature on the planet. In our case, that's four and three fourths billion. Not even the gods could stop them then."

Hitomi shivered. "Four billion, seven hundred fifty million enemies?" She looked at Alice. "That sounds like suicide. What do we intend to do?"

"Stop him before that." Alice said. "Eve says that the rate at which his force builds is roughly linear until the solstice, and not all that fast. She estimates he only has about one hundred thousand right now, and won't break a million until the day of."

"One hundred thousand still seems like pretty poor odds." Hitomi said. "I don't like the sound of twelve thousand to one."

"That's exactly the point." Alice said. "If there's only eight of us, we don't stand a chance of taking him on directly, and he knows that. There's no way he'll bother sending his whole army after eight people."

"Oh." Hitomi said. "That's a good point, actually. I always wondered why the villains in stories didn't just send ten thousand men after the band of heroes. I suppose it would be rather hard to justify using that many men to take out such a small group. It would make them seem weak."

"Now, with the fact that teleportation appears to be a simple task, you would think that we could just gate in there and stab him." Alice continued. "But they have very powerful barriers up, and we can't get through them. However, each of the six barriers are controlled by one of the king's champions. So if we can defeat these champions, we can take out the barriers one by one, until the tower is open to us. That's our goal. Defeat the six, gate in, and face the devourer king."

Hitomi looked at Alice with worry. "Wait. If we attack the champions directly, won't that make it very clear that we are a threat to him? I can't see them just letting us go and take them down one at a time after the first one. Once we kill the first one, won't he send the whole army?"

Alice's smile froze. "Uh..." she didn't move for a few seconds. "I'm sure Eve's thought of that." she said quickly. "I don't know all the details."

"Okay." Hitomi nodded. "Well, this makes some more sense now." she sighed. "It really is just like a story. I could see myself reading a book with this as a plotline. Take out the six mid-bosses, then onto the final boss. A clean, uncomplicated setup." she sighed. "I just hope this is one of those stories where everyone makes it through to the end."

"I'm sure it will be." Alice said. "We're the most rag-tag unprofessional group of underdog heroes you've ever seen! There's no way we can lose."

Hitomi giggled. "I suppose you're right."

The two girls stood there, both lost in their own thoughts for a moment. Hitomi's stomach growled. Alice giggled. "Sounds like your hungry."

"I guess it would be about lunchtime for me normally." Hitomi said, her stomach growling again.

"Well, then, let's eat!" Alice said, taking Hitomi's hand and exiting the room with her in tow. Hitomi couldn't help but smile. She knew that she had made the right choice. No matter what else happened, she had made a new friend today, one she planned on keeping as long as she could. There were still things to lean, battles to fight, and hardships to face, but for today, even if only for a few more hours, Hitomi let herself be happy.

It could be the last time in a while that she was allowed.

##########

End Chapter Report:

Shizuki Hitomi has gained 1 combat class. Shizuki Hitomi is now a witch.

Shizuki Hitomi has unlocked the achievement 'Magic and Miracles are Real' for casting her first spell.

Shizuki Hitomi has unlocked the achievement 'Unfortunate Naming Conventions' for becoming a witch.

**Authors Note:** By now, you're probably thinking to yourself, 'self, this is barely Madoka Magica related!'. That's because it's barely Madoka Magica related. At least, so far. The stories will become intertwined later, but things are just starting now. After all, this takes place more than a week before Akemi transfers in. The first episode hasn't even happened yet. A little faith, please. I will get to it, I promise.


	3. Chapter the Third

Chapter the third, in which everything goes perfectly fine and nothing suspicious happens, and a hospital heist occurs off screen.

May 19, 7:42 AM – Fifty-five days, sixteen hours, eighteen minutes remaining.

Hitomi blinked her eyes blearily, sitting up on her bed. She shook her head, yawning and stretching out her arms above her head. Without thinking, she flicked her wrist, summoning a glass of water in a flurry of emerald power. She drank the water slowly, waking up. She'd only been out for about twenty minutes, but she felt as if she had gotten a full, though perhaps slightly short, night of sleep. She smiled to herself quietly. That was magic for you.

Yesterday had been very interesting. After heading to eat, (Eve was a very good cook, it seemed) Hitomi had spent almost six hours just learning spells from Alice. She now had nearly forty memorized, though she still felt mentally and physically tired from the effort of such sustained casting. She didn't think she would hold herself to anything like the fifty a day Alice did. It was already getting confusing to find the correct ones, and she hadn't even learned any combat magic yet. She touched her focus, feeling the cool gemstone against her neck. So much had changed in so little time.

Touching a silver buckle on her new belt, Hitomi was both pleased and relieved to see her scabbard and sword materialize. She'd picked it up from the armory at Eve's request. It was lighter and weaker then most blades, and not as sharp, but its ability to disappear at will was very useful to Hitomi in her situation. She giggled. Only a few hours in, and she'd already gotten her first magical weapon.

She sighed. She needed to put this out of her mind, for now at least. She still had a day of classes to attend, after all. Day one of fifty-five, hiding her double life.

Hitomi acquired breakfast easily enough, leaving her home quickly with little trouble. She wasn't sure why her parents seemed so lax and unconcerned at her eighteen hour disappearance, but she supposed she should just be glad that they were, for whatever reason.

Hitomi walked quickly towards the school. It wasn't very long before she was looking at the backs of two very familiar people. She ran up to them, joining them as they approached the building.

"Oh, hey!" Sayaka giggled up at her. "Fancy that! You're usually the first one on your way here. You must have been really sick yesterday."

"You never even went to the nurse." Madoka said, concern in her tone. Hitomi almost flinched. Using sickness as an excuse was made much more difficult when you were best friends with the nurse's aid.

"Oh, I'm fine." Hitomi said, laughing nervously. "I just felt really sick for a few minutes. It turned out to be nothing. But after such a sudden acute problem, we figured I should spend the day in observation."

"Well, if you're sure you'll be okay." Sayaka said, putting her hands behind her back and continuing to walk. Hitomi let out a sigh of relief. It seemed her reputation for normalcy was helping her for once.

"That's a really pretty necklace, Hitomi." Madoka said, looking at her focus. "It looks nice on you, but you never really struck me as the jewelry type. Where did you get it?"

"Oh, this?" Hitomi said, her mind racing to come up with some kind of reasonable explanation. After all, from the size and quality of the gemstone, the piece was clearly no small trinket. "Uh..."

"I mean, Hitomi's probably got tonnes of really expensive jewelry in her room." Sayaka said. "Her family is stupidly rich. She just doesn't show it off because she doesn't want us to feel bad." Sayaka grinned. "So, which boy are you trying to attract this time?"

"Oh, nothing like that..." Hitomi said.

"Being mysterious, are you?" Sayaka grinned. "That won't do. Come on, tell us!"

The three girls walked into school, talking of boys and their studies, and Hitomi let herself relax back into normalcy.

Hitomi went through the day in a half-haze, her mind never fully tuned into the world around her. She kept one eye out for the mysterious magical girl she had seen yesterday, but she didn't recognize them if she saw them. It was noon, then four, then eight, and before she knew it she was standing back in the Mitakihara Middle-School grounds, in front of a graffiti covered stone, the ground lit only by streetlights.

Hitomi paused, looking around. She was fairly certain she couldn't activate the world gate on her own, and she definitely couldn't use it correctly. She hoped she hadn't missed them.

A light wind blew across the grounds. Hitomi looked up to the dark sky, the stars twinkling beautifully. Did the fact that magical worlds existed, that people felt the need to bridge the gap between universes, mean that there wasn't life on any of the worlds out there? She sighed. These were thoughts for philosophers, not thirteen-year-olds.

"What are you doing here?"

Hitomi turned around, then froze. Not ten meters from her, a girl with golden hair, still in her school uniform, stood. She recognized her instantly as the mysterious figure from the day before.

"Oh, just looking up at the stars." Hitomi said, trying to sound as innocent as possible.

"It's dangerous to be out this late, you know." The girl said. "Especially alone."

"Mitakihara is a very safe town, especially in this area." Hitomi said shortly, hoping that the portal did not appear now. "Besides, you seem to be having an okay time of it."

An uncomfortable silence fell. The two girls looked at each other. Hitomi couldn't help but be confused. As far as she was aware, this girl shouldn't have any knowledge of her.

"Are you sure that you're alright?" The girl said after another moment.

"Yes." Hitomi said airily. "But it's very nice of you to be concerned."

The girl looked at something glowing in her hand. Hitomi couldn't see what it was, her fingers obscuring it from her angle. It couldn't have been very big. "Well, be careful." The girl said kindly, closing her hand and turning to leave.

The stone began to glow behind Hitomi. She didn't make a sound as the other girl walked away slowly. The runes began to solidify, and the portal formed. Hitomi let out a sigh of relief. She saw something begin to emerge from the portal.

"Thank goodness you came when you did." Hitomi said, smiling. "Five seconds earlier and we would have been-"

Hitomi stopped speaking as the person, now easily identifiable as Alice, passed through fully. She tipped down, limp as she emerged. Hitomi barley managed to catch her. She felt warm blood soaking through her clothes.

"H-Hitoim..." Alice said, putting her hand up to Hitomi's cheek, streaking it with blood. "Help..."

Hitomi's eyes went wide. "How! W- what do y-you need?" She hugged Alice to her. Alice was silent. Her blood began to drip onto the walkway below. Hitomi considered her options for a second, then took out her cellphone. Quickly, fingers shaking, she typed 119 and hit call. Someone picked up within three seconds.

"Mitakihara emergency services, please state the nature of your emergency." The voice said calmly.

"I..." Hitomi said, trembling. "She's bleeding so much..."

"Where are you?" The voice said calmly.

"M-Mitakihara Middle-School g-ground level courtyard." Hitomi choked out, feeling her throat beginning to close. "Please..."

"We're sending an ambulance to your position." The voice said. "Please, stay calm and on the line."

Hitomi gulped and tried to force a few breaths into her. She needed to calm down.

"Now, can you explain exactly how you came across this person?" the voice said.

"I... was walking by the school... and I saw her collapsed on the ground..." Hitomi said, trying to steady her voice. Hopefully, any problems in her lie would end up being written off as shock. "I went up to her... I tried to poke her, to get her attention... my hand was covered in blood..."

"Is there anything else visibly wrong with her, aside from the bleeding?" the voice asked. Hitomi looked at Alice briefly.

"No. It... It looks like that's it." Hitomi said.

"Can you see a puncture wound of any kind?" the voice said, clarifying. "I know this must be scary for you, but any information we can get will let us help her faster."

"Um..." Hitomi looked her over, shaking as she did so. Her clothes were covered in Alice's blood, and she felt sick as she looked for a wound. "She's... been stabbed twice in the chest, once in the hip, and once in the left leg. Maybe more. I can't tell for sure." Hitomi said softly.

"Is she conscious?" the voice asked.

"No." Hitomi shook her head slowly. "No, she's..."

"Do you hear breathing?" asked the voice.

"N-no." Hitomi said. "But she's still b-bleeding more, so she has to have a pulse."

The voice on the line went quiet for a few seconds. "Is there anything else you can see which you think would be important for the medical team to know?"

"I... don't think..." Hitomi said. Alice convulsed, coughing loudly. Hitomi gasped. "She's wakening up." Hitomi said quietly.

"Hitomi..." Alice said softly, tugging on her arm. Hitomi leaned down to her.

"I've called an ambulance." she said, realizing after a second that Alice would be unfamiliar with what that meant. "Some people are going to come and take you to a place and try to make you better."

"Hitomi." Alice said. "I'm... not as bad as I look." she grinned weakly. "Most of the blood isn't mine."

"You've been stabbed twice in the chest." Hitomi said.

"Really?" Alice murmured. "I only remember the first one." She reached up to her neck, slowly pulling off her focus. "I need you to protect this." Alice said. "Please. When I'm better, give it back to me. If someone else gets it when I'm like this, I might never get it back. I need you to keep it safe for me, okay?"

"Okay." Hitomi agreed. Relief was flooding through her in waves. From what she could tell, it looked like Alice would be hurt for quite some time, but in all likelihood she wouldn't die. "I'll keep it safe."

"And don't tell the people about me being a witch and all." Alice murmured, her eyes fluttering closed again. "I don't want to have to... deal with... the press..." she lost consciousness again.

Hitomi put the phone back to her ear.

"-okay? Please, tell us what is happening. We need to know of any developments." the voice was saying.

"I'm sorry." Hitomi said. "It seemed that she really needed to tell me something."

"What did she say?" the voice asked. "It could be important."

"Just incoherent nonsense about some anime, I think." Hitomi said. "But she woke up, which has to be a good sign, right?"

"Is she still conscious?" the voice asked.

"No. She's out again." Hitomi said. There was a screech of tires nearby, and Hitomi saw an ambulance pull up near them. "I can see the ambulance now."

"Okay, now, please follow all instructions given to you by the medical personnel." the voice said. "You may hang up now if you wish."

Hitomi hit the end call button, putting the phone numbly into her pocket. The paramedics approached them, lifting Alice from Hitomi's lap and placing her on a stretcher. Hitomi sat there silently, not moving, lost in thought. One of the men went over to her, putting a blanket over her.

"Do you know her?" The man asked kindly.

"No." Hitomi shook her head slowly. "I've never seen her before."

"So you wouldn't know her name, or any contact information, then." The man said. Hitomi shook her head slowly again, not speaking.

"You're in shock, understandably." The man said. "But everything is going to be fine, I promise."

Hitomi nodded, watching the doors of the ambulance close on Alice, obscuring her from view. Across the street, the girl with the golden hair looked on. Hitomi raised her head, and the girl looked away, walking swiftly off. Hitomi watched her go for a moment. The ambulance pulled out from the middle-school, passing between Hitomi and the girl. When it had passed, she was gone.

"What's your name?" the man asked. "Is there someone we should call for you? You must want to get home after this."

Hitomi nodded. "My name is Shizuki Hitomi." she said softly. "My home is only a few hundred meters from here."

"Can you call your parents?" the man asked. "I'd like to speak to them."

Hitomi slowly took her phone out of her pocket, entering her number after a few attempts. She held it to her ear to make sure it was ringing, then gave it to the man. He took it cautiously, the waterproof case covered in partly-dried blood.

"Hello?" the man paused. "I'm with the Mitakihara emergency medical service." he paused again. "No, Hitomi is fine, though she's in shock. She found another injured girl and alerted us." he listened for a moment, then looked down at Hitomi. "Well, her outfit is covered in blood, but as far as we can tell none of it is hers. The injured girl was bleeding a lot. She's shaking, and seems to be only partly conscious of what's going on around her. Other than that, there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with her at all." the man paused. "Yes, I'll tell her." he hung up. "They'll be here in a few minutes." he handed the phone back to Hitomi. "You did a really good thing today, Shizuki Hitomi. You might have saved this girls life."

Hitomi nodded numbly again. The man stood up, looking around for the arrival of her parents. Hitomi began to cry softly. Thirty-six hours. No, more like thirty-four. That was all it had taken for a wonderful world of magic to turn into a nightmare. She had hoped to get at least a few weeks in before something like this happened. The heroes weren't supposed to get killed on the first day. That just seemed too cruel.

Fifteen percent survival chance. That's what Eve had said when they met. She had a fifteen percent chance of living to see the end of June. Fifty percent that everyone in the party would be dead by then. This, then, is what that really meant. What it really looked like.

The world gate activated again. Looking up, Hitomi felt fear disrupt her shock, knocking her back into action as adrenaline began to pump into her system. Whatever was gating in now had a good chance of being whatever had attacked Alice. The man seemed completely unable to notice the magical circle, though Hitomi thought she heard him mutter something about the light looking strange. He did notice Hitomi stand up suddenly, however.

"What's wrong?" he said. "Nothing's going to hurt you. Please, calm down."

The magic circle flared brightly, and the portal opened. The man blinked. "What on earth...?" Hitomi made a note that overt magical effects were apparently easier to see then smaller effects. She hoped whatever it was which gated through was far enough over the threshold for the man to react with some intelligence.

"Please, stand back." Hitomi said, touching her belt buckle and drawing her blade. The man took a few steps backwards, shock spreading across his face. Hitomi, filled with fear, rage, and sadness, stood ready to face whatever dared to appear before her. There was a flare of magical energy, and her blade began to radiate spectral green flame, her eyes glowing. A complex magical circle appeared beneath her, and she felt a wave of energy pass over her. With a flare, her hair doubled in length, and small magical markings appeared on her hands. Behind her back, a curved green line appeared, joined quickly by a second. Together, they made a clear quarter circle centered at her core. Hitomi didn't bother to think about what was going on. She just prepared to attack whatever emerged.

The figure appeared, and Hitomi swung down hard, a wave of uncontrolled power rushing down her blade. A red barrier rose to block it, shattering under the force of the blow but successfully scattering the strike. Hitomi spun, slicing out at the approaching figure again, but her blade was met strongly with another, easily parrying her blow and returning a strike of its own. Hitomi attempted to defend herself, her strikes far stronger than those of her opponent but far less skilled. Each wild swing of her blade left the air humming in its arc, but the approaching figure had no trouble blocking each and every blow.

"What the hell are you doing, Hitomi!" Eve yelled, breaking Hitomi from her blind rage. "Stop attacking me!"

Hitomi gasped, looking into Eve's eyes. She stopped moving for a moment, just standing there, looking at Eve with a stunned expression. Her grip failed her, and her sword dropped to the floor with a clang. Hitomi looked at her hands, saw them catching her tears. With a burst of light, the two glowing curves behind her head turned to dust, along with her extra hair. The markings faded from her hands slowly. "I..." Hitomi said through her tears. "I couldn't think..."

"Damn, girl." Derick said from behind Eve. He must have followed just after her. He was looking at Hitomi with a mix of shock and... awe, perhaps? It was hard to tell. "You have quite the sword arm, that's for sure."

Hitomi looked around through her tears. The path in front of the middle-school was torn with deep gashes leading as far out as two meters from her. Hitomi blinked. "How..." she looked at Eve. "Did I do this?"

"Yes." Eve said, walking up to Hitomi and giving her a hug. "But its okay now. You're fine." she gave Hitomi a smile. "Luckily I'm used to things like this. You didn't even manage to scratch me." she looked around. "We'll discuss what happened here later. First, though, we need to find Alice."

"What happened to her?" Hitomi said, brushing off her tears with a small patch of her shirt not covered in blood. She needed to focus now. There would be time for crying later.

"We had hoped you would be able to tell us that." Eve said. "It looks like you're covered in her blood."

"She said it was mostly not hers." Hitomi said numbly. "I didn't know what to do when she appeared, so I called emergency services. They got her off to a hospital."

Eve sighed. "Not the greatest choice in the world, but at least that means she should be safe for now. And given your options, you did the right thing, Hitomi."

"When she wakes up, she won't be able to understand the doctors, and they won't be able to understand her." Derick said, flipping through his spell-book's holographic display. "There's going to be a lot of confusion, but other than that, it should be okay. She is human, after all. Put Fox or Lilly or Eve under there, and there might have been trouble, but I can't really see a problem with Alice being at a hospital."

"So, do we know anything?" Hitomi asked.

"Well, Alice wanted to go and get you herself, so we let her go off." Eve said. "After that, we don't know what happened. We waited an hour, and when you two didn't show, we followed. Most likely, she was attacked very nearby the world gate, making her attempt to get to you the better option for her. We found some blood in the hall, but not nearly enough to explain..." Eve pointed to Hitomi's shirt. "That."

"Who..." the emergency services man said, looking at them. "are you people?" he finished lamely.

"No one." Eve said, taking two steps and hitting him with an arc of red sparks. "Sleep now."

The man's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed.

"Oh!" Hitomi said, shaking her head. "My parents are going to be here any second!"

"They shouldn't be able to see me, and Derick looks normal enough." Eve said, then paused. "Though, give how easily you see through magic, I'm not sure that will work, to be honest." she looked into the air, thinking. "Normally, I'd just wipe your parent's memory, go to the hospital, and remove Alice. Everyone who knows your name would be unaware of the event, and Alice would just be some weird case to talk about in years to come. But with you having called the emergency services yourself, it's not really practical to wipe all trace of your involvement anymore. As such, the discrepancies in the stories would just end up casting suspicion on you. So..." Eve paused. "As much as I hate to say this, act like a normal, scared girl for tonight. We'll try to gather tomorrow and figure something out once this has hopefully blown over at least a little."

Hitomi nodded. "Okay." she looked to Eve. "From what I could tell, Alice was pretty hurt, but I don't think she's really in any danger of dying."

Eve shuddered a little, turning to smile at Hitomi. "Thanks for that, Hitomi. I needed that." Derick and her stepped back into the portal. "Be strong. We'll see you tomorrow, and figure out just what the heck is going on." The two vanished.

A car pulled up to the path, two worried parents rushing to their daughter. Hitomi took a deep breath. Somehow, she was sure acting the part of a scared little girl wasn't going to be that hard.

-*%*-

Hitomi sat in her room, looking out her window at the city outside. Today was a Sunday; no school, no work, no plans. Her parents had been very nice about the whole event, really, giving her as much space and time as she wanted. Her skin still tingled lightly from the shower she had taken eight hours ago. She had spent a long, long time getting all the blood out of her hair. She wondered what her parents would say when next time the blood was hers.

She looked down at the back of her hands, the memory of glowing runes etched into her mind. Perhaps the tingling had a different origin. She still had no idea what had happened to her to cause such a transformation. It was magic, obviously, but she hadn't cast any spells that she could recall. It had just sort of happened.

Hitomi looked across to her dresser, a beautiful black gemstone hanging on a silver chain in her jewelry rack. She wondered if it was feasible for her to visit the hospital to check on Alice. It wasn't that suspicious for her to want to check in on the girl who's life she might have saved, but she figured the fact that they would be able to talk to each other would at draw at least a little unwanted interest. Still, the sooner she figured out what had happened, the better equipped she'd be to deal with whatever it was if it decided to show up here. And, to be honest, she was feeling a strong compulsion to attend to her. Whether it was concern for her friend or due to the contract, she wasn't sure, but it was definitely real.

"Miss Hitomi, there is someone to see you." One of the family servants informed her from beyond the door. "I assume you wish to be left alone?"

"Who is it?" Hitomi asked.

"I believe it is Miki Sayaka."

Hitomi paused. It made sense, she guessed. There was no way she would have known about what had happened last night, and Hitomi vaguely remembered agreeing to walk with her today. She looked out the window for a few more seconds, then sighed. She really needed to take this off her mind. "No, tell her I'll be down in a minute." Htiomi stood up, grabbing Alice's focus and putting it in her pocket. For whatever reason, she felt that she should be near it at all times. She touched her own focus briefly. It had been nearly impossible for her to take off her own focus, even just to take her shower last night. The anxiety she felt from removing it was incredible. She could only imagine how hurt Alice had to be to give this to her, and how incredibly dead set on convincing her to join the spectrum she had to have been to let her hold it on the first day. Perhaps it faded with time. Hitomi certainly hoped so.

A minute later, Hitomi was greeted by Sayaka at the door. Sayaka's voice fell as she looked at Hitomi.

"You look awful." she said, concerned. "What happened last night?"

"I don't really want to talk about it, if that's okay." Hitomi said quietly. "Perhaps later."

Sayaka seemed to want to say something more, but she just sighed. "Okay." she took a few steps away from the door, turning back to Hitomi with a smile. "Come on then!"

Hitomi shook her head. That was Sayaka for you.

The two walked around the city. Today was a beautiful day at least, and fairly warm. Hitomi found herself largely unable to concentrate on the conversation, simply nodding when it seemed appropriate. She was too lost in her own thoughts. She knew that she should be stronger than this. She had specifically agreed to take this upon herself, and yet she was failing to maintain her charade at the first hurdle. Fifty-four days left. She couldn't stop herself from shaking slightly. Fifty-four days of lying, fear, hate, and pain. Why had it all crumbled so quickly?

"Okay, now I know something's wrong." Sayaka said as Hitomi walked into a lamppost. Hitomi shook her head, stunned. She must have been really out of it.

"..." Hitomi paused, rubbing her head. "I'm so sorry, Sayaka. You're right, something is wrong." She paused. How much could she say before she would put Sayaka in danger?

"We don't have to talk about it here." Sayaka said. Hitomi looked around. They had at some point wandered into the shopping district, a good half-hours walk from her home. She must have been really, really, really out of it. "Why don't we get something to eat?" she looked at Hitomi. "Whatever it is, if it's shaken you this badly, it must be serious. Sometimes, all friends can do is listen, but just being able to go through it with others will help."

Hitomi nodded slowly. "Alright." she felt her mouth go dry. She had such good friends. She wanted so badly to tell Sayaka what was going on. She started shaking. How could she possibly survive a month and a half of this? She could barely take twelve hours.

"Hey." Sayaka took her hand. Hitomi looked down at her concerned face. "Everything's going to be okay."

Hitomi took a deep breath. "Your right. I'm so sorry about this, Sayaka." she looked up at the sky. "I guess I'm not as strong as I thought."

Sayaka shook her head. "Did someone die?" she said incredulously. "Because you're really, really scaring me, Hitomi."

"No. Not quite." Hitomi said. "Please, can we talk about it somewhere more private?"

Sayaka nodded. Hitomi sighed. "Is there anyplace in particular you want to go?" Sayaka asked. Hitomi shook her head. "Well, then, follow me." Sayaka motioned for Hitomi to follow. "I know of somewhere nice and quiet."

Sayaka lead Hitomi quickly to a nice path overlooking the river. There was a lone bench on a stretch of land next to a bridge, separated from the other benches lining the sides for some unknown reason. Sayaka bid Hitomi to sit down, and she complied.

"What's up." Sayaka said, taking Hitomi's hands in hers. "No one else will hear us as long as you don't shout."

Hitomi nodded slowly. "Sayaka..." she looked at her. "What's the most blood you've ever had on you?"

Sayaka's eyes went wide. "Hitomi..." she said softly.

"Have you felt it soak through your clothes? Has it turned your hair brown, the ground red, until you couldn't even find a clean part of your shirt to cry into?" Hitomi was beginning to hyperventilate. The images were coming back to her in a rush, and now that her body was no longer filled with adrenaline, now that she felt finally safe again, there was nothing to stop her from shaking. She looked at Sayaka, her vision blurring. "I found a girl yesterday." she said softly. "She was bleeding so badly, Sayaka. So very, very badly. I was sure she was going to die. I held her, Sayaka, as she passed in and out of consciousness, reached out to me for help." Hitomi touched her cheek where Alice had dragged her bloody hand across it.

"Did she..." Sayaka said slowly.

"No." Hitomi said. "Somehow, no. I called emergency services and they picked her up. I don't know what happened next. It's a bit of a blur."

"Hitomi..." Sayaka said again. "That... I can't even imagine seeing that." she looked at Hitomi. "Did you know her?"

Hitomi paused. "Yes." she said quietly, tears beginning to fall. "The only friends I cherish more are you and Madoka." she gave Sayaka a strong, steady look. "But you mustn't tell anyone that. Please. I can't explain exactly how I know her. It could put her, and and anyone you tell, in danger."

Sayaka seemed troubled, but she nodded after a short while. "I promise I won't tell anyone." she said. "I don't understand it, but the last thing you need right now is me going and making your life more difficult. As long as it doesn't put anyone in danger to keep quiet, I will."

"Thank you." Hitomi said, leaning into Sayaka. She held her crying friend, letting her simply weep until she simply couldn't form tears anymore.

"This is being strong, you know." Sayaka said, when Hitomi had finished crying. "Crying now, with friends, after having taken care of the situation? That's just a reasonable way to react to what happened. Me?" She laughed softly. "If I saw you or Madoka covered in enough blood to soak through _my_ clothes, I wouldn't be able to move from shock. But you managed to call emergency services, get home, and go on a walk with a friend just a few hours later." Sayaka looked into Hitomi's eyes. "Being brave and strong isn't a matter of not being afraid. It's a matter of being afraid and doing what you have to anyway." there was a brief pause, and Sayaka got to her feet. "Come on." she took Hitomi's hand and lifted her to her feet too.

"Where are we going?" Hitomi said quietly.

"To the hospital." Sayaka said. "What you need right now is to see that she's doing fine. We're going to see her. Heck, why don't you introduce us? Any friend of yours, weird circumstances or not, is a friend of mine."

Hitomi let out a breath. "You're right." she looked at Sayaka. Tears built again for a moment, but she brushed them away. This was why she had decided to become a part of this quest. To keep her friends, her wonderful, kind, innocent friends safe. If magical worlds existed, if the creatures and evils of fairy-tales could come here, then there needed to be someone to fight the monsters of the night. Sayaka was why she would survive, no matter what it took. Madoka was why she would keep it a secret, no matter the pain she had to keep inside. Alice was why she wouldn't give up on the quest, even if it killed her. She would save their world, and keep hers from needing saving, no matter what it took.

Hitomi followed Sayaka to the hospital. The girls approached the front desk. A secretary looked down over the large desk at the girls. She seemed to recognize Sayaka.

"He's in his room right now." she said kindly to Sayaka. "We'll let him know you're coming."

"Actually, we're here to see someone else." Sayaka said quickly. Hitomi nodded to herself. It was very kind of Sayaka to visit Kyousuke so frequently as to be considered a regular. She always meant to come more often herself, but she never seemed to get more than one chance a week, if that. She supposed they could both stop in on the way back.

"I see." the secretary paused for a moment, before a light seemed to go on behind her eyes. "Oh. You must be the girl who called the ambulance for our little miss 'jane doe'." she paused. "Unfortunately, no one except family is allowed to approve visitors, and seeing as she doesn't have any family that we know of..." she trailed off. "I'm sorry, but I can't tell you where she is."

"Come on!" Sayaka said. "This has to be some kind of special case. She saved the poor girl's life! Can't she at least be allowed to see that she's recovering?"

The secretary shook her head. "I'm sorry. Nothing can be done on that front, I'm afraid." she paused. "I might be able to get you some kind of status report, but that's the best I can do, and I might not even be able to do that."

Sayaka kicked the ground, grumbling under her breath. Hitomi bowed briefly to the woman. "Thank you. I'd like that very much, if it's possible."

The secretary paged one of the doctors, talking into her microphone. Hitomi sat Sayaka down in one of the chairs.

"This isn't fair." Sayaka said. "They should let at least you in."

"It is what it is." Hitomi said. "They can't just let anyone into any room they want."

"I know..." Sayaka fumed silently. "It's still stupid."

Hitomi didn't say anything for a moment. "Thank you, Sayaka." she said quietly. "I wouldn't have convinced myself to come here on my own. Just the fact that they're refusing visitors means she has to be at least still alive."

"I guess." Sayaka said.

Hitomi's vision blurred, then sharpened. "_Where are you?" _Eve's voice sounded in her head.

Hitomi blinked, then shook her head. _"At the hospital with a friend. We were trying to get to Alice, but they won't let us in."_

"Are you okay?" Sayaka asked.

"Yeah. Just a bit... preoccupied." Hitomi said. Sayaka seemed to accept this pretty easily, turning back to scowling at the secretary.

_"Hold up. I'll be joining you shortly." _Eve sent. _"Can you get rid of your friend?"_

_ "Sayaka?" _Hitomi almost laughed. _"Not a chance."_

Eve didn't respond for a few seconds. _"We'll deal with her later, then. I'm just glad the memory wipe spell has no side effects. I've had to use it every time I've come to your world." _There was a brief pause. _"Though I guess if everything goes well, we won't have to use it at all. I have a plan to get her out of there."_

_ "Alright. I'll see you soon, then." _Hitomi closed the connection, her eyes going back into focus.

Sayaka and Hitomi waited there for a few minutes, Sayaka getting more and more frustrated as time went on. "You'd think she'd at least know if she could get us something or not by now." Sayaka said angrily.

"Just give it time." Hitomi said. "I'm sure she's trying."

Just then, the doors to the hospital opened. Though they were disguised well, Hitomi could easily identify the three people as Eve, Max, and Lilly. She was unsure as to why this particular group had decided to come, but they looked normal enough on the surface, she supposed.

"Hello?" Eve said, going to the desk quickly and alerting the secretary to her presence immediately. "I'm sorry, but can you please check if you have a certain patient here?" Eve showed the lady at the desk a picture of Alice. "It's very important."

"Hold on." The secretary typed a few things into her computer, looking briefly from the picture and the screen. "May I see some form of identification?"

"Sure." Eve handed her a card. It looked like a normal ID card to Hitomi from this distance. Max saw her looking at them and winked at her. Hitomi sighed. She supposed it was his job to make fake ID's and the like, but still.

The woman attempted to scan the card, but the system didn't accept it. She swiped it again. Hitomi saw Eve give Max a dirty look. He grinned nervously.

"Is there something wrong with your RFID tag?" the woman asked. "Because you're not coming up in the system."

_"You know, just for future reference, how advanced is your civilization, anyway?" _Max asked Hitomi.

_"You should have checked before hand!" _Eve shot him mentally.

_"It would have been far more suspicious to include a RFID tag before they were invented than to not include one!" _Max shot back.

"Oh, it's been on the fritz for a few days now." Eve said quickly. "I was meaning to get a new one, but I don't need to use it too often, and it's only been broken for less than a week, so I haven't had the time yet."

The woman looked at the card. After a moment, she sighed. "Alright, miss Eve Winters." She handed the card back to her. "Now, what is the relationship between you and the..." she paused. "Wait. Can I see that card again?"

"Sure." Eve handed it back. "And I'm her older sister. Max is her brother, and Lilly drove us here."

The woman looked at the card again, then gave Eve a dark look. "Oh, really?" she said flatly. "From the date of issuance included on here, I'd think you were her grandmother."

Eve paused. "What? No, that can't be."

"Well, it says March 1962 as the time of issuance." The woman said. "Either that or 2062, but I don't think you're from more than forty years in the future."

Eve didn't say anything. Max looked down.

Lilly stepped forward. "Oh, I'm so sorry." She said sweetly. Hitomi saw the secretary's face melt from distrust to blank acceptance in an instant. "There must have been a terrible mistake. I assure you, these two are indeed related to that poor girl. I know this looks bad, but can't you see their faces? They really do care dearly for the girl. Can't you please let us in?"

"Oh, of course." the secretary nodded. "I'm so sorry for this. Of course there's been a mistake." she laughed, handing Eve her card back. "She's in room 318."

"Thank you." Lilly said, smiling at the woman. She smiled back like she was greeting her oldest friend. "You've been very helpful."

Eve waited until she was sure that all attention was on Lilly, slapping Max hard on the back of the head with a glare. He rubbed his hair and looked down at his shoes.

"Would you happen to know who found her?" Eve asked the secretary, her composure back to normal.

"As it happens, she's sitting right there." the secretary pointed at Hitomi. Hitomi smiled up at Eve, then turned to look at how Sayaka was reacting. Unsurprisingly, Sayaka was giving the three strange looks.

"Hey." Sayaka said, tugging on Hitomi's arm. "I don't know what that lady just did to the secretary, but I don't think we can trust these people."

"Oh, wonderful!" Eve said, walking over to Hitomi quickly. "I wanted to thank you. You have no idea what this means to me." she sniffed, giving Hitomi a sad smile. "I owe you her life. I couldn't imagine what I would have done if she'd..." she trailed off. Hitomi had to give her credit, Eve had planed this out fairly well. Still, she wasn't sure why she was bothering with the act at this point. They were basically brute forcing it now anyway.

"Oh, it was nothing." Hitomi said.

_"Sayaka's really suspicious." _she sent.

_"I'll take care of it, don't worry." _Eve sent back.

"It's not nothing to me." Eve said, hugging Hitomi awkwardly. Hitomi stood stiff for a second, then returned the hug.

"Please, come with us." she said. "I'm sure it'll take a weight off of your mind to see her."

"Hitomi..." Sayaka pulled on her arm again. "This is a really bad idea."

"Do you think we'll have any other way of getting in?" Hitomi hissed. "I know this is a bad idea, Sayaka. You don't need to come if you don't want to." she gave Sayaka a smile. "It's a fully staffed hospital. It's not like they plan on kidnapping me and taking me out in the middle of the day."

Sayaka sighed. "Fine. But if we do get kidnapped, you have to pay my ransom." she smiled at Hitomi.

"Deal." she said quietly.

Hitomi turned back to the three. "Okay. We'll come." she said.

"Onwards to 318, then!" Eve said, walking out with the others. Hitomi and Sayaka followed at a few meters distance.

They walked through the hospital in silence, reaching their destination fairly quickly. Sayaka eyed them suspiciously the whole way through, but didn't say anything. Lilly opened the door, and the five entered the room.

The moment she stepped in, Hitomi could feel dark magic saturating the air. She shivered. There was something lurking here. Perhaps it was just something about hospital rooms? They had to see enough deaths to leave some mark.

"Hey, fancy seeing you four." Alice said, sitting up in her bed. "Well, five." she looked at Sayaka. "Is she Madoka?"

"No, this is Sayaka." Hitomi said. "Sayaka, this is Alice."

"Very nice to meet you." Sayaka said, bowing lightly.

Alice giggled. "It really is just like anime." she said. "You are all so over-polite."

Eve rounded on Max. "The wrong year." she said flatly. "You put the wrong year on the card." she shook her head. "Hitomi, what year is it?"

"2018." Hitomi said.

"You see?" Eve said. "It would have taken you all of twenty seconds to figure it out. 1962! What the hell!"

"Sorry." Max said. "You did only give me forty minutes warning, and half that time was spent just getting to the world gate and then to someplace with a wireless internet connection. The fact that I managed to get as close as I did under these conditions is a miracle in and of itself."

"Did you bring my focus?" Alice asked Hitomi.

"Of course." Hitomi said, taking it from her pocket and handing it to Alice. She took it quickly and put it back around her neck.

"Thanks for this." Alice said. "I know yesterday must have been really scary for you. I tried to tell you I was okay, but I was so exhausted at the time I couldn't think straight."

"You certainly look fine." Max said. "Hitomi told us you were in a bad way last night."

"You know these people?" Sayaka asked Hitomi. She looked around the room, confusion playing across her face. "What the heck is going on here?"

"Nothing important." Eve said. "Well, not to you anyway." she took a few steps forward, red sparks collecting in her hand. Sayaka had just enough time to take a step back before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed.

"You know, I think you just like using that spell on people." Lilly said coyly.

"It wouldn't have been necessary if things had gone as planned." Eve said.

"I'm sorry." Max said. "Geez, give me a break, will you? This is the exact reason we brought Lilly along. Everything went fine in the end."

"What memories did you take?" Hitomi asked, putting Sayaka down in a chair.

"When she wakes up, she'll think you and her managed to get in here on your own, and found an unconscious but recovering Alice." Eve said. "That's all."

Hitomi nodded. She could live with that for now, she supposed. She turned to Alice. "How are you doing?" she asked.

"Perfectly fine." Alice said, getting out of her bed and brushing off her hospital gown. She flicked her wrist, a series of magical circles appearing. With a flash of blue-white light, she was back in her normal, solid black witches outfit. "I told you last night, I wasn't as bad as I looked. I heal fast." she looked around at the assembled crowd. "Sorry to worry you."

"You were bleeding so much that you fell unconscious!" Hitomi said. "What happened to the stab wounds?"

"What happened in general?" Eve said. "Perhaps if we get the story from the beginning, things will make more sense." Hitomi could tell that she was relieved at Alice's strange recovery, even if she didn't say anything outright.

"Heh." Alice said. "Well, it's quite the story, that's for sure."

"Don't keep us in suspense." Lilly said dryly.

"Well, you all remember me leaving to get Hitomi, right?" Alice started. "Everything went fine for a while. I made it to the world gate without trouble. But before I could cross it, something grabbed me in a magical hold. I saw some weird black and red creatures, half flesh and half shadow, approach me. There were only two of them, I think. Obviously, they had no idea of how to deal with a spectral witch. Even with my sub-optimal combat ability, I was easily able to destroy them before they reached me with a few well timed magical strikes. Unfortunately, when I did that, instead of leaving me alone they decided to step up their game. Even as the hold disintegrated, I felt myself being pulled into... something. I can't really describe where I ended up all that well. Pocket dimension seems to fit best, but it wasn't really that. Anyway, in this strange little space, there were, like, one hundred of the things. Now, I might be a little impulsive, and perhaps a bit want to overestimate my own ability, but even I could clearly see that I didn't really stand a chance of beating them all at once. Unfortunately, I didn't seem to have a choice, as they began to attack me almost immediately. To say I did a little bit of reckless spell-casting would be an understatement. I'm personally surprised to say that I managed to keep the whole group suppressed on my own for nearly a full minute. I must have been casting three, four spells a second the whole time. The sub-space glowed in blue-white light as I tried desperately to fight them off. But I soon felt myself tiring. By then, I must have killed thirty, maybe forty of the things, a great feat to be sure. But my perimeter began to collapse, and while impressive, I'd only managed to get perhaps a third of their number. By that time, I was soaked in blood, so much so that I was having a hard time running. One of the things managed to get at me from behind, stabbing my leg. I blasted it into little pieces for its trouble, but it really opened me up. The next minute or so is a bit of a blur. I know I was doing more running than fighting at that point, and I recall being stabbed at least once more. I don't know how it happened, but the next clear memory I have is being back on the floor of the gate-hall. By this point, I knew I was finished if any more of those things got to me. I had spent all my magic, probably overcast to be honest, and I was losing my strength quickly. The only person I could possibly get to in time was Hitomi, so I went for it." Alice paused. "That's what I was trying to say when I came through. I wanted you to defend me, Hitomi. I wasn't in any medical trouble. But by then, I could barely keep my eyes open, I was so spent. I don't really remember what I said after asking for help. For all I know, I fell unconscious right away. The next thing I recall is waking up here, some doctors exclaiming in shock at how quickly I was recovering." Alice finished her story, turning to Hitomi. "Sorry about your clothes, by the way. I hear bloodstains never really come out."

No one said anything for a moment. Alice looked at everyone curiously. "What?" she asked. "Is there something fishy with my story?"

"It does seem strange that none of the creatures came through after you." Max said. "There were eight or nine minutes between your appearance and when we showed up, and Hitomi didn't see anything."

"No, that makes sense." Eve said. "I think I know what those things were. Though the fact that they tried to attack Alice is really, really bad news if I'm right."

"What were they, then?" Lilly asked. "Since you seem to know."

"Well, I can't be sure. Understandably, Alice's description wasn't the most detailed thing in the world." Eve said, pausing. "But from what she said... I think they were corrupted souls. The weakest of the devourers."

Silence fell on the group. Sayaka stirred, then settled down again. Everyone looked at each other.

"Why is this a problem?" Hitomi asked after she felt an appropriate length of time had passed. "I mean, aren't we supposed to be facing these guys?"

"It's a problem, Hitomi, because that means they know we're trying to stop them already." Eve said. "And we haven't even done anything yet. They made the first move. Somehow, they knew. They obviously don't consider us that much of a threat, as they haven't attacked us with much force. They seem to be trying to scare us. That's why they singled out Alice, who was traveling alone. That's also most likely why they let her go." Eve turned to Alice. "Sorry to say it, but you really shouldn't have done as well as you did."

"Oh, I know." Alice said. "I was shocked as much as you are. I'm fully aware that I shouldn't be able to hold myself at one hundred to one. I shouldn't really be able to do ten to one."

"They weren't trying to kill you." Eve said, nodding. "This was a message." she ruffled Alice's hair. "Though I dare say they probably thought you'd be an easier target than you proved."

"So, what do we do now?" Max asked. "They know we're coming, apparently. How does this change our plans?"

"It doesn't." Eve said. "Well, maybe we'll start a little sooner than I was originally planning. I figured we'd spend the next two weeks training and getting used to working as a team. That's not really an option now, though. So, in that respect, I suppose it has changed things." Eve looked at everyone in the room. "We start our assault tomorrow."

Silence fell again. Ten seconds passed as everyone collected their thoughts.

Eve spoke again. "Now, there is something else I want to talk to you all about, but I think it should wait until we have the whole group together." she nodded at Hitomi. "I think you know what I'm referring to."

Hitomi nodded. Oh, yes, she knew. She just had no idea what it was or how she had done it.

"Can you take her home and follow us to the gate?" Eve said, gesturing to Sayaka. "I understand that this probably wasn't what you were planing to do with your day, but it's sort of important that we get ready."

Hitomi nodded again. "Trust me, I get it." she looked to Alice. "I'm just glad you're okay."

"Heh." Alice said, rolling her eyes at Hitomi. "Did you seriously think something as small as four stab wounds could stop me?" she giggled. "I'm tougher than that."

"I mean, you are only human." Max said. "To be frank, I'm surprised myself."

"Magic." Alice said. "Isn't it wonderful?" she looked around at the others. "What, did you think in all of the sixty-four thousand spells I've learned, I never came across anything to boost my own healing ability?"

"Fair enough." Max said. "Though I'd imagine that it would require a significant amount of power."

"About one third, actually." Alice said. "I traded about a third of my power permanently for twenty times normal regeneration speeds, oh, three years ago?" she sighed. "You people just never ask."

"Well, to be fair, I've never seen you get seriously hurt before." Eve said. "I figured you just used some simple patching spell on scrapes and burns."

"Nope." Alice said, smiling at the others. "I'm full of little secrets."

"Regardless of why, she is okay now." Lilly said. "I'd figure that would be the important part."

"I disagree." Eve said. "Knowing how someone does something lets you more accurately figure out what they are capable of. She can get back on her feet quickly but wouldn't be considered a tank, for instance. In combat, you'd want her to take a knife for you, but wouldn't send her out against explosives. She's more resistant to weaker blows, but an instant kill for us is still an instant kill for her. It matters."

"Urngh..." Sayaka turned over in the chair.

"Can we take care of the girl first, and talk about this when we get back to base?" Max said. "I don't think Hitomi can carry her on her own, to be honest."

Hitomi snapped, a emerald pentagram appearing for a moment before dispelling. Sayaka was enveloped in green light for a moment, then dimmed to normal. She picked her up easily.

"Well, well." Eve said. "You've been learning quickly."

"I showed her a few dozen spells that I figured she might be able to use immediately." Alice said. "One to make objects weigh one tenth as much was on the list." she gave Hitomi a smile. "Though I'd hurry. It's not a cheep spell, you know. You'll wear yourself out pretty quick with that one."

"I know." Hitomi said. "I'll meet you all at the world gate in half an hour." The others nodded.

"Be safe." Eve said.

Hitomi nodded, and exited the room with Sayaka in her arms. No one seemed to comment on the impossibility of her carrying another girl her size so easily, for which she was very grateful. Humanity's normal tendency to ignore magic came in handy again, it seemed. She spared a short thought to how the others planned to get Alice out of the building, but eventually decided it was best that she just let them handle it. They'd think of something. She couldn't help but be happy, despite the obviously growing hardship which faced them. Alice was still okay. The group was moving. Everyone seemed to be so cool and collected. Eve was calm, Max was logical, and Lilly was surprisingly snarky. No one seemed particularly concerned. If they weren't worried, Hitomi figured she shouldn't be. She wouldn't go in expecting everything to be roses and sunshine, not anymore – but that was no reason to be afraid. The heroes always had to face challenge. And she would meet it.

With a group like theirs, what did they have to worry about? So long as they kept their heads, they'd all be fine.

##########

End Chapter Report:

Shizuki Hitomi is now level 2

Shizuki Hitomi has unlocked the achievement 'The Power Inside Me' for preforming her first form shift.

Shizuki Hitomi has unlocked the achievement 'Psycho logical' for reacting reasonably to her suffering.


	4. Chapter the Fourth

Chapter the fourth, in which people talk about doing things for the whole chapter, and Hitomi learns how to fight.

May 20, 01:09 PM – Fifty-four days, ten hours, fifty-one minutes remaining.

"What took you?" Lilly said as Hitomi approached the gate. She felt horrible shame pass over her in waves.

"I'm sorry." Hitomi said mutely. "I tried to get here as quickly as I could, but Sayaka's home is twenty minutes from the hospital, and another twenty from the school. It took me longer than I expected." she looked up at Lilly, blushing from the internal disgrace she felt. "Please forgive me."

"Stop that, Lilly." Max said. "That's just cruel."

"Sorry." Lilly said quietly. "I can't really control it, you know."

Hitomi shook her head, clearing it. She shuddered, looking up at Lilly for a moment, then sighed. "Are we ready to go?" she asked.

"Should be." Eve said.

"Hold up, I want to finish this." Alice was eating a candy bar of a brand that Hitomi didn't recognize. "Just give me a few more seconds." she took another large bite. Hitomi noticed a good five empty wrappers in her left hand.

"Apparently, her healing costs a good bit of chemical energy too." Eve explained. "Which explains a few things, actually."

"Don't complain." Alice said. "You know you like cooking anyway." Eve stiffened and looked away. Alice giggled. "You do, even if you won't admit it."

"How did you get these?" Hitomi asked Alice. She giggled. Eve stiffened further. Max sighed. Lilly laughed.

"Do you think that was really that hard?" Lilly asked airily.

Hitomi sighed. "Forget I asked." she looked at Eve. "I could have given you money if you'd told me."

"We didn't think that we'd need it." Eve said. "There weren't supposed to be pit stops."

"Finished." Alice said, vaporizing the wrappers with a quick spell circle. She giggled and flexed her hand. "Oh, that feels good. It might have only been a few hours, but I missed spell-casting."

"Come on, then." Max hit the stone, blue sparks from his hand going into the runes and making them glow. As the portal began to form, Hitomi turned to him.

"Hey." she said tentatively. "I've noticed, the magic you and Eve do seems to be different to the magic Alice and I can. Is that right?"

"Yes, it is. There are several dozen mutually exclusive systems of magic." He nodded at Lilly. "Her beast-magic and voice control is a third, completely separate type. And Fox is something different again. It's actually more rare that we'd have any two people using the same kind in a party of eight, even stranger still that we have two groups of two."

The portal finished forming, and Eve stepped in. "Enough exposition. Come on now." she went in fully and disappeared. Alice bounced in second.

"Jaxx is going to be so worried!" she said, jumping through without pause.

"Well, you won't let me be left alone with anyone, so I have to go next." Lilly said, shaking her head and stepping in. "At least there's actually five of us this time. When we came in, Eve and Max held my hands together the whole way through." she sighed, and went through.

Hitomi shook her head. "Does she not realize how scary she is?" she gave her school a final look, then stepped through the portal. This time, she just kept her eyes shut and mouth closed until she felt the cold marble floor beneath her. She opened her eyes. Surprisingly enough, there were even less people here now. It looked like only two or three people outside of their group were awaiting arrivals or getting ready to leave this world. Eve was looking at the nearly empty room with sadness. Hitomi supposed it made sense. Every time she used the portal, it must remind her of the decaying of her world.

A few seconds later, Max appeared through the gate, shivering slightly for a moment before recovering. Eve nodded when he arrived. "Let's go." she said, motioning to the group. They followed in silence.

The trip through the city was uneventful, though Hitomi did notice that it seemed almost grayer then it had been the last time she had seen it. The people walking around were just slightly more muted, slightly less energetic. It wasn't much, but everything felt just slightly off. As if the people somehow knew that they were on the edge of some tragedy, but couldn't really tell what.

They reached the teleport gate in no time, and within three minutes they were gathered together in the meeting room. Hitomi looked around. This was the only common room she hadn't been in yet. It wasn't much to look at. There used to be stained glass windows lining the back wall, but they were all shattered now. The left wall was partly collapsed, rubble still piled up in heaps. A few scraps of red carpet still lined the floor in front of the door, leading through what was likely at one point the middle of the room and ending at the broken remains of what might have at one time been a throne. The room was fairly well lit at least, the old touch-holders filled with florescent light-bulbs. Hitomi was briefly swept with curiosity as to the events which lead to the destruction of almost exactly half of the castle, but her attention was brought back to the present by Eve, who addressed the assembled group.

"I called this meeting to explain certain things, and to also make sure everyone in the group is up to speed with the plan." she started, looking around. "Our first order of business is-"

"Our first order of business is giving you a good smack." Jaxx said, leaping onto the table and approaching Eve angrily, his tail swishing back and forth with barely contained rage "How could you let poor master Alice go out on her own like that! I will hold you personally responsible-"

Eve's eyes flashed red, and she threw an array of sparks at Jaxx, who promptly started yowling. After a few more attempts at normal speech, he angrily hissed and walked back to Alice, curling up in her lap. Eve sighed. "Alice, can you please keep tighter control on your familiar?"

"Sorry." Alice said.

"As I was saying, our first order of business is at this point a formality, but as there are still matters involved with it to discuss, I do believe it merits our attention." Eve continued. "Alice, while on her way to pick up Hitomi, was attacked and injured. She has been safely returned to us now."

"Hi." Alice said to the group.

"However, the details of her encounter has led me to believe that the devourers, our enemy, are to at least some degree aware our movements." Eve said. "This has led me to make three conclusions. First, we need to move more quickly than I thought. If we are already singled out as at least some level of threat, then we have no time to loose - and no time to spare. As such, I have decided to move up the date of our first attack to tomorrow at dawn, some five hours from now."

There was a murmur from the rest of the group. Hitomi saw Derick and Max exchange some words. Fox grinned. Lilly sighed. Alice seemed nonplussed.

"Secondly, none of our group should be allowed to travel alone." Eve said. "We should always stick in groups of two or three at all times when going on any kind of mission, even just to the store. There are only three exceptions to this rule: When we are here, when we are in Derick's world, and when we are in Hitomi's world. Does everyone understand?"

Everyone nodded. Hitomi sighed with relief. For a moment there, she thought she might have been disallowed from attending classes. She looked at Derick briefly. She supposed it made sense that he would have some kind of normal life as well. If he was from an advanced alien civilization, it wasn't very likely that he lived here. He probably had a house, and a family, and went to school just like she did. It was a bit weird to think about.

"Thirdly..." Eve said, then paused. She gave a brief look around the room, waiting until she was sure that everyone was giving her their full attention. "It seems likely from their knowledge of our movements and their ability to so easily identify and ambush our second-weakest member, while on her way to pick up our weakest no less..." she paused again, and sighed. "I really don't want to say this, but I think we have a spy in our party."

No one said a word. Eve continued. "We can rule out Alice and Hitomi from the list of possible candidates, being as one of them was attacked and the other has barely known of magic for two days. But it could very easily be any one of the rest of us." Eve said. "This is in part why I've been so frank about exactly what I'm planning right now. I can't explain now, but what happens when we arrive in five hours will confirm or deny one of my suspicions. With that in mind, Hitomi, Derick, please do not speak of what happened between the three of us last night until after the assault."

"What happened?" Alice asked Hitomi, confused.

"I can't say, apparently." Hitomi whispered. "Not that I understand it anyway."

"Wait, so there's a spy among us?" Max said, looking around. "One of the five of us is a spy for the enemy?"

"One of the six." Eve said. "I could theoretically also be the spy. It's only Hitomi and Alice who are ruled out for sure."

"No, you really couldn't." Fox dismissed the notion with a wave. "You'd need more than then a confession to convince anyone here that it was you. Heck, if the king of the devourers came over and told us it was you after you had confessed I'd still have a hard time."

Everyone around the table nodded, looking at each other with suspicion. Eve sighed. "Look, there's no point in trying to figure out who it is right now. It's in their best interests, especially now that we know that there is one, for them to be as normal as possible. As such, being that this is the first assault and all, it would be rather stupid for them to blow their cover now. We can count on them to act normal in combat, at least for today. From a 'not dying' standpoint, the less time we spend distrusting each other and the more time we spend working together, the more likely we'll be to succeed. From a purely combat perspective, it's in everyone's interests to act as if there isn't a spy until we can be more sure of what is going on. Otherwise, we'll just tear ourselves apart before the enemy even reaches us."

"Well, that won't be hard at all." Silvia said, shaking her head slowly. "It's not like this makes us afraid that we're going to be stabbed in the back at any moment."

"Just concentrate on doing your best." Eve said. "After this attack, we'll have some time to really try to figure things out. Then everyone is free to play the blaming game all they want."

Hitomi looked at Eve with confusion for a moment. She couldn't really see the point in telling everyone that there was a spy and then expecting them to not do anything about it. There was something else going on here, she could tell.

Everyone shot a few last looks across the table, but they settled down fairly quickly. Eve sighed, then began to speak again. "Our second order of business is the actual attack plan. Luckily, it's nothing to complex, so we won't be loosing much other than surprise if the spy does contact them in the next few hours." Eve opened her palm, and blew a flurry of red sparks into the air. They hung there for a moment, then formed into a rough holographic projection of what Hitomi could only assume was the surrounding area. "We are here." Eve said, a red dot flashing briefly. "And there are three enemy encampments within two hundred and fifty kilometers of us." Three small red boxes were highlighted. If the area in the projection was really two hundred and fifty kilometers, they were at least one hundred from each other. "The plan is the absolute simplest thing I could devise. We're going to attack the group geographically closest to us. Each of the groups should have one commander of some kind. I've never actually seen them, unfortunately. These dots are just where I've detected large amounts of corruption. It should be fairly obviously, with any luck, who is in charge. So we go in, kill anyone in the camp, and then through the power of Lilly's sweet words we extract the location of one of the champions from whoever is in charge. If we fail in the attack for any reason, we try again the next night against the next closest target. The morning after that, we attack again. We continue to do so every twelve hours until we get the information we need."

"Simple enough." Derick nodded. "If the plan involves killing everyone, there's not much they can do to plan around that."

"Alright." Eve said. "Are there any questions?"

"Um..." Hitomi put her hand up. There was a brief pause.

"Yes, Hitomi?" Eve asked. "What is it?"

"Well, given the scale of the map you were discussing, that nearest encampment is more than eighty kilometers away." Hitomi said. "How are we going to get there?"

"Leave that to me." Derick said. "I can handle localized teleportation of up to fifty kilometers. Two hops, and we'll be there."

Eve nodded. "We'll be using everything we have. The enemy isn't going to hold back, so neither are we. This isn't a game. Clean kills don't earn you more points, and saving your special attacks for the final boss is just wasted opportunity to kill something else quicker. We want them dead and us alive. That is the only objective."

"Yeah, yeah." Fox said. "Don't worry about that, Eve. If there's anything this party is bad at, it's self control. I don't think 'holding back' was really ever in the plans."

"Is that all?" Eve asked the assembled group.

"Seems it." Lilly said. "If you will excuse me, I need to find my arrows. They've gone missing, and if we're going to attack in five hours..." she trailed off, standing up. "I can't say I agree with moving up the times, but I will differ to your judgment, for now."

Hitomi noticed Eve letting out a sharp sigh as Lilly stopped talking. She looked shaken for a moment before her eyes cleared and she turned back to the group at large.

"Hitomi, Derick, I'd like you two to stay here for a moment longer." Eve said. "Otherwise, you are free to go."

"Hey, come and see me when you're done here!" Alice said, nudging Hitomi. "If we only have a few hours, I'd better show you a few combat spells right away!" she giggled. Hitomi couldn't tell if she was just putting on a brave act or if she was legitimately excited at the prospect of going into battle. Probably both. She got up and skipped out of the room, followed by Lilly and Max. Fox gave Eve a wink as he left, disappearing from notice before he made it to the door.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Silvia asked Eve quietly, but easily loud enough for Hitomi to hear.

"No." Eve said. "But we have to try at some point."

"I don't have as much combat experience as you do, but I am more than twice your age." Silvia said. "If you need help, you can ask us, you know. You don't need to do everything on your own. Part of being a good leader is knowing the skills of the people under you and using them to your best advantage."

"I know." Eve said. "I just wish we had a good leader to make those kinds of calls."

Silvia paused, opened her mouth, closed it again, then sighed. She patted Eve on the shoulder twice and walked out.

Derick turned to Eve. "So, I'm guessing this is about what Hitomi did last night."

"Yes." Eve said. "We need to figure this out before she goes into battle, preferably. I know we're down most of our brainpower, but hopefully the three of us will come up with something."

"And if I'm the spy, I already know about it, so there's no use in trying to keep it hidden from me." Derick said. "You know, spy's just add another layer of unwanted complexity to all this."

"I hand picked half of you, and that damn cat found the other half." Eve said. "If there's a spy here, it's my fault. I have an idea of what's really going on, but unfortunately it doesn't work if I tell anyone what my suspicions are. If I'm wrong, I might give them ideas; if I'm right... things are going to get even more complicated."

"Let's not dwell on that now. I trust you know what you're doing." Derick said, turning to Hitomi. "Besides, we have other things to think about."

Hitomi felt a chill pass down her spine as Eve and Derick examined her intently. No one said anything for a few tense seconds. Eventually, Eve broke the silence.

"You don't have the slightest clue what you did, do you." she said flatly.

Hitomi felt herself relax a little. It made her feel better for someone else to say it, for some reason. "No, I'm sorry." she said. "It's certainly never happened before to me."

"Well, then." Derick said. "Let's examine the facts. First, you underwent a clear transformation when it happened. I mean, your hair doubled in length magically; that's not something that normally just happens. And you somehow managed to cast some kind of force spell on your sword, despite not knowing any combat magic of any kind."

"Then there were those two green marks behind your head." Eve said. "One over each shoulder. They seemed to be two eighths of a dashed circle, from what it looked like."

"I felt a huge wave of magic course through me when it started." Hitomi said. "Not quite as shocking as when I first became a witch, but still pretty big. Also, my hands had glowing runes on them."

"Can you draw the runes for me?" Eve said, handing Hitomi a sheet of paper. She looked at the page for a moment, then pushed it back to Eve.

"No. I wasn't really paying attention, and they were fairly complex. I can only remember that there were some number of runes inscribed inside what looked like glowing circles."

"Well, that tells us for sure it's not the same kind of magic that you witches use. If it was, you'd remember the runes instantly without effort." Eve said. "So it has to be something else."

Hitomi nodded. Derick opened his spell book and flipped through the holographic screen for a few moments, searching for something.

"I wouldn't suppose you would be able to do it again, would you?" Derick asked after a moment's pause.

"I think it only happened because I was scared for my life." Hitomi said apologetically. "I don't think that I could activate it again at will."

"Could you try?" Derick said, and Eve slapped him on the back of the head. He rubbed it and scowled at her. "Ow! It's not a stupid suggestion." He turned back to Hitomi. "Try remembering your fear, and see if you can pull up the energy again. After you activate a mysterious ability the first time, it seems to go that it gets much, much easier to activate it a second time."

Hitomi nodded. "I can try." she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to feel her past fear again. She plunged into her mind, calming down as she attempted to let herself go back into a previous state. Her thoughts began to settle as she looked through herself for the feeling that she had, to call up the mysterious power that she had felt. After a short time, she came to the conclusion that any introspective thought which led her to calm down this much was probably not what she wanted. She was about to admit she had no idea what she was doing and give up, when she felt something. It flowed up through her as she became calmer, using her mental leave of absence to push its way through her. She took a hold of it and let it flow into her, until she felt a tingling spread across her body.

Hitomi opened her eyes slowly. A magical circle appeared beneath her feet, and runes materialized on her palms. She felt a wave of energy overtake her, though less severe than the night before. A glowing green mark appeared behind her head, centered down her core. She turned to the others, her eyes radiating green light.

"Well, I'll be." Eve said. "That certainly is something else." she shook her head slowly. "You look like a regular little demi-goddess."

"I wouldn't go quite that far, but it's impressive for sure." Derick said. "According to this, her energy signature just roughly doubled."

"That's still huge." Eve said. "And she's nowhere near as fully transformed as she was last night."

"I feel... strange." Hitomi said. She shook her head, and her eyes dimmed, the runes fading slowly.

"And..." Derick paused. "Back to baseline."

"So, that confirms it, if anything does." Eve said. "It's definitely not your normal magic, if it serves to make you more powerful in and of itself. It forces a magical transformation, and apparently can happen in at least two different levels. It also allows you to use magic you don't really know, as long it's something simple. Hold on..." Eve seemed to be thinking, putting a hand up against her forehead and knocking on it lightly. "I think I might know what this is." she stood up. "You two wait here. I'm going to get a book from the Library." she looked down at the other two. "I'll be back in a minute." she left the room.

"Well, Hitomi, looks like you're quite the special girl, one way or another." Derick said. "You've got quite the ability there, whatever it is."

Hitomi didn't say anything. She wasn't sure this was such a good thing. She highly doubted she would be able to do it on call; she'd basically done it through luck this time, and was fairly certain that while she could most likely reproduce the effect, it would take another minute for her to do so. It wouldn't be a particularity effective tool in combat, especially given that she couldn't seem to maintain it and hold a conversation at the same time, let alone carry out a battle plan. If they started to rely on her being able to do this, she could only see it ending in disaster.

"Don't we all?" she countered. Derick laughed.

"I suppose so." he sighed. "Hey, if this lets you become a good combat mage, it'll take a lot of weight off of my shoulders. With Alice being a utility mage, Lilly being... whatever she is, Fox only being able to do stealth, and Eve concentrating on melee combat, I'm really the only good ranged magical fighter in the party. Having another combat mage who actually used combat magic instead of magic to help their combat would be nice."

"I wouldn't jump to any conclusions." Hitomi said. "We just figured out I could do this yesterday, and we're not really sure what it does yet."

"You've only had magic at all for two days, yet you seem confident enough with that already." Derick said. "War has the effect of turning the sweetest schoolgirls into hardened heroes in a span of time you wouldn't think possible. I'm sure you'll get the hang of it soon enough."

"Humanity has been warring since... well, as long as there have been humans, most likely." Hitomi said. "We haven't figured out everything yet, and we've been giving it a quarter million years at least. I'm not sure I'll break any new ground in fifty days. I don't want you to get your hopes up. I don't think I'm going to be that great of a warrior, war or not."

"People change in strange ways, given enough pressure." Derick said, looking at Hitomi curiously. "I would think you'd be happy. I mean, it looks like you're going to be quite the little fighter. Plenty of power to protect those friends of yours with."

"I don't think I have to become someone else in order to be strong." Hitomi said. She shook her head. When had they transitioned from talking about her fighting style to her personality? She must have missed something.

"Hitomi, do you seriously expect to make it through this without changing?" Derick said. "Because that just won't happen. Don't get me wrong, I think sweet innocence is a precious thing, but it doesn't have a place in a hero. It's a luxury, and one you can't really afford if you want to make it through this alive. We fight so others can keep it, but us? We don't have a chance." he looked directly into her eyes. "I'm not going to sugar coat this, Hitomi. You might be only thirteen, but you've been an adult since you agreed to take on this quest." the reflections of florescent lighting flashed across his eyes. "Within one week, you will have killed someone who is just as human as we are. I can nearly guarantee it. Not some monster, not some evil creature, but another person. There's always someone. Heck, for all we know, you'll have to do it in five hours. Heroes change. That's how it works. They have to do terrible things to protect what they care for, and doing terrible things is what makes jaded warriors out of children."

"I am fully aware." Hitomi said, looking up at him with forced defiance as she trembled from his words. "I am more than willing to give up my innocence. That isn't a question. But I don't think I need to lose my humanity to do it." Hitomi paused, then looked back up at Derick, her gaze intensifying. "Most people think being mature is the same as being self-centered, that all kindness is naivete, and that anyone who goes through hell still thinking there is good in the world is asking for it. But being cynical isn't being mature. It's just as stupid as being naive; perhaps more so, as at least naive people have the chance of finding happiness later. No matter what happens, I won't let my humanity die. I'll shed naivete, but I'm not going to throw all my kindness and hope out with it. I refuse to accept that all that exists beyond childhood is suffering, that life is one grand struggle to find the softest spot on a bed of nails."

"Hitomi..." Derick said. He seemed to want to say more, but he sighed. "I'll just hope you're right. But if we're going to be fighting in a real, honest-to-goodness life-or-death battle in five hours, I don't want something like the fact that the enemy has faces to hold you up. We're going to have to kill people in less than three hundred minutes, and that's a bit of a leap for someone who's never even really been in a fight before."

"I'll handle it." Hitomi said. "Or I'll die." She blinked again. Had she really just said that? Perhaps she _was_ changing.

"That's just it. I don't want you to die." Derick said. "And as much as you might think you're ready, you never really know until..."

Derick was interrupted by Eve reentering the room. She looked back and forth between the two of them, then sighed. "I have no idea what you two did while I was away, but you both look mildly upset now. Can we please put whatever quarrel you two have managed to start in the span of the three minutes I was away and apply ourselves to the task at hand?"

"..." Derick paused. "I'm sorry, Hitomi."

"I wasn't really under the impression that we were fighting." Hitomi said flatly.

"Whatever." Eve said, putting a book down on the table. "I think I've found it, and if I'm right, there's no wonder why Jaxx led me to you."

"I did say give it two days." Jaxx said, appearing by Hitomi's legs and hopping onto the table, seemingly recovered from whatever Eve had done earlier. "It might have taken a few hours longer than forty-eight, but I think you can forgive me. It's hard to keep things straight when you have one paw in the present, one paw in the past, one in-"

"-the future, and one out of time altogether." Eve finished. "If you don't have anything useful to say, please don't say it, Jaxx."

"I don't understand it." Jaxx said. "You seem to hate me so much, Eve, and all I do is help you." he sighed. "You humans are so weird. You never seem to do the logical thing."

"I am not human, and I take offense that you would say such a thing." Eve countered. "I am a proud Valkyrie warrior, thank you very much."

Hitomi wasn't sure, but she thought Jaxx might have rolled his eyes. "I'm going back to Alice. She appreciates me." he paused, rubbing against Hitomi briefly as he left. "Oh, and Hitomi does as well, of course. My masters are nice, unlike some people."

"Anyway," Eve said as Jaxx left the room. "as I was saying, I think I know what you've done, Hitomi." she smiled at her kindly. "Don't worry, it's a good thing. Well, mostly a good thing. Like anything, it has its dangers, but it's not an inherently evil power or anything."

"What is it, then?" Derick said. "I don't get this weird obsession you have with the pronoun game, Eve. We're not in a movie or a book. You don't need to artificially increase the suspense."

"Geez." Eve said. "Fine, fine. Well, Hitomi, it looks like you're a form shifter. Maybe."

"A..." Hitomi blinked. "form shifter? What does that mean?"

"Seriously?" asked Derick. He seemed shocked. "I mean, that would explain it, but..."

"Form shifters." Eve said. "They're physically normal humans, but for some reason they possess an incredible internal power. They seem to get this power at random, with an incidence of around one in every billion or so." Eve opened the book, flipping through it to a page with some diagrams of people in different states of transformation. "Its called form shifting because they change their form, as we saw. The first few levels aren't that huge of a change, but around form five or six they usually get very elaborate. The change can manifest itself as anything, really, but glowing runes on the hands and clear, floating glowing marks denoting each level are always present."

"A form shifter." Derick said. "This is... huge. This is really huge."

"Each form a form shifter takes gives them three times the power of the previous form, up to at least seventh." Eve said. "Beyond that, there isn't much data, apparently. It is noted here that there has been one recorded case of someone reaching form eleven, but no information was gathered due to the destruction of most of that world's biosphere during the next three minutes."

Hitomi looked at her hands. A form shifter? Eve said there were one for every billion people, so she supposed that on a world of seven billion, it wasn't that unlikely that one would be a young girl. Still, her? She wasn't anything special, certainly not a one in a billion.

"What are the costs?" Hitomi asked tentatively.

"That's just it." Eve said. "That's the reason form shifters are so incredibly powerful. There are no costs. As long as you can handle the power flowing through you, you're absolutely fine. No lifespan reduction, no soul corruption, no insanity, nothing. It's basically a superpower." Eve paused. "Well, there is one thing. As I said, form shifters are normal humans. So, while your output will increase uncontrollably if you get to the higher levels, you don't actually become any tougher. A single bullet will kill you in seventh form just as easily in zeroth. And as you cast stronger and stronger spells, you run greater and greater risk of burning out. If you lose control of the magic, it could tear you apart. But that would be true whether you were a form shifter or not. There aren't really negatives." Eve smiled at Hitomi. "Sometimes good things just happen. For instance, I'm just naturally damage resistant. There's no cost to it. You shoot me and I don't go down; you stab me and I stab you back, pull out your blade, and keep on fighting." she ruffled Hitomi's hair. "You got lucky, Hitomi. And I'd be proud to fight with you."

"Uh..." Hitomi said, shrinking back slightly. "I'm no chosen one. I don't even know any combat magic yet. And I can't do this form shifting thing at will."

"Yet." Eve said. "The book says that now that you've done it the first time, it'll be much easier. It also says that usually people can reach only second or third form to start with, but most reach fourth, fifth, and even sixth with enough practice. Apparently, going higher than sixth is fairly rare, but with that being 486 times baseline power, I don't see why you'd need to go much higher, to be frank."

"So she's the glass cannon." Derick said. "Highest output, lowest damage tolerance." he looked at Hitomi with considerably more apprehension than he had been a moment before. After a moments pause, he laughed. "Well, fancy that. You really have put together a world saving team, haven't you? I was wondering what you were thinking, dragging a thirteen-year-old girl into this, but I suppose this explains that pretty well."

"Don't worry." Eve said to Hitomi. "I don't believe in the concept of a MVP. Everyone on a team is needed just as much as every other. That's why they're a team, after all. So if you're worried about getting a huge amount of responsibility dumped on you all at once, don't. It doesn't work that way. Besides, there's still the whole 'glass' part of 'glass cannon'. Don't go thinking because you've got this superpower thing that you're suddenly better than anyone else. And, even if you do, definitely don't let yourself think it somehow makes you invincible. The worst thing you can do is let something like this get to your head."

Hitomi nodded. "Does the book say anything about how I can train this power?" she asked. She felt a little pressure in the back of her mind, prodding her lightly. "And, also... can I tell Alice? I mean, you already said she couldn't be the spy."

"No." Eve shook her head. "To both, unfortunately. The book is a reference guide on human powers, and wasn't really made for the use of the one in a billion, unfortunately. And as far as Alice is concerned, while there's no problem with her herself knowing, anything Alice hears has a tendency to be known by everyone within twenty minutes." Eve sighed. "Though if she does find out, I won't hold it against you. She is your spectrum leader, after all. You should be more loyal to her than anything else in the world."

"You really need to let that go." Derick said.

"I know." Eve sighed again. "If I'm going to battle with you in a few hours, I better trust your judgment. Still, I just know that you're going to regret this at some point, Hitomi. Give it forty years when Alice still has your leash, and things will be a bit different." she shook her head. "Perhaps I've just fought too many spectral witches."

"How did you come across Alice, anyway?" Hitomi asked. "You were together for a good half year before you found out about this quest, right?"

"That's a story for another time." Eve said. "Alice is waiting for you, Hitomi. She's right, you need to learn at least a few combat spells before we start. I don't think five hours will be enough time to get you the required sword training, judging from last night. You showed good instinct but no skill. You're going to need a magical method of defense."

Hitomi nodded, standing up. "I'll make sure to not be a burden. It's my first fight, but I'll do my best."

"I know you will." Eve said. "You have a good heart, Hitomi. Keep your will strong, and you should be okay." she flashed a grin. "Oh, that and avoid enemy fire. See? Simple."

Hitomi laughed nervously. "I'll be sure to remember that."

She bowed to the other two and excused herself, noting the somewhat anxious looks Eve was giving her when she didn't think Hitomi was looking. Hitomi exited the room and went up the stairs as fast as she could manage. Five hours. She hoped she could learn enough combat magic to be at least not a burden by then.

She knocked on Alice's door. There was a brief pause, then Alice's voice called from inside. "Hitomi? Is that you?"

"Yep." Hitomi said. "Can I come in?"

"Of course!" Alice said. "The door is always open to you."

Hitomi pushed against the door, and heard the lock unlatching automatically as she entered. Alice was sitting on the floor, a large pad of blank brown paper laying in front of her. She smiled up at Hitomi. "So, what was that about?"

Hitomi felt a pressure in the back of her head. She had a strange desire to tell Alice exactly what had been discussed. It wasn't in the same way as when Lilly made a request, not a natural feeling of trust. It was more like a fear of not telling than a willingness to give. She felt her mouth go dry.

"Eve told me not to tell." Hitomi said after a pause. She felt sweat begin to drip down the back of her neck. "She said that anything you know is know by everyone in twenty minutes."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Yeah, fair enough. With a spy about, we do have to be more careful. Tell me as soon as you can, though. We shouldn't keep secrets from each other. We're friends!"

Hitomi felt the fear inside her subside quickly. "Yeah, we're friends." she said quietly.

Alice motioned for Hitomi to sit next to her. "Come on now. We have a bit of work to do. Combat magic don't work like utility magic. It's much better to know one spell well than many spells poorly, and the initial learning period is much larger. I think it would be best for you to learn two spells, a basic shield spell and a standard attack spell. I have a couple of each for you to look at, but we only really have time for one of each."

Hitomi nodded, taking the sheet of paper that Alice held out to her. There were a few spells with brief descriptions of each written on the page. She looked at them briefly before turning back to Alice.

"We also should set up your witches barrier." Alice continued. "It'll be useful for after the battle, as you heal and recharge magic about five times faster while inside your barrier than you do normally. It has other useful things too, but those two are the most important for us right now."

"Witches... barrier?" Hitomi asked curiously. "I think I remember something about that from the contract."

"Yeah. Every witch has one." Alice said, flicking her wrist. The room became outlined by a thin rainbow sheet, glowing softly. "This is mine."

Hitomi stood up, touching the rainbow barrier with her hand. It disappeared at her touch.

"No one can get through my barrier unless I say so." Alice said. "I could keep anyone I wanted out, or trap anyone I wished inside. There are some very powerful magics which can take down a witches barrier, but if you're fighting someone capable of that, you probably won't live long enough to make it to your barrier anyway. They're very useful."

Hitomi nodded. It seemed it. "How do we make one?"

"Drink this." Alice handed Hitomi a glass filled with a brown liquid. "Trust me, just do it."

Hitomi drank the liquid. It tasted funny, but not too bad. She felt fortified all of a sudden.

"Half protein shake, half alchemical potion of fortification." Alice said, taking a knife from her desk. "You'll need it. This is going to take a lot of blood, and we can't have you falling unconscious on us."

Hitomi took the knife. "How much are we talking?"

"Enough to line the edges of whatever room you chose with a five centimeter thick band." Alice said. "It took me about a liter to do my room here."

"Is this such a good idea?" Hitomi asked. "I mean, if we're going into battle in less than five hours, shouldn't I not be down a liter of blood?"

"Silvia will fix you right up once we're done." Alice said. "She's got potions for just about every injury or illness." she looked at Hitomi. "Hitomi, this is really important. A witches barrier is their home."

Hitomi sighed. "Okay. Where are we going to make this?"

"Your room." Alice said. "Everyone here has one. There are ten rooms on this floor, so you have your choice of the three remaining ones."

"Here?" Hitomi said. "Shouldn't we do my room at home?"

"It's really easy to change where your barrier is once you've made it the first time." Alice said. She paused. "And it'll be easier to get you here if you do get hurt then to get you to your room in another world." she said quietly.

"Okay then." Hitomi nodded. She was much more willing to do this now; even this apparent rite of passage was only being done for practical reasons. Alice was still considering this in terms of how it would effect them after the battle. Hitomi shivered. She hadn't really internalized it yet, she guessed. She was going to war. There wasn't any time for anything else.

"Lets get started." Alice nodded, and Hitomi slit her arm.

-*%*-

"No, the second semi-fold marking should be a few centimeters to the left." Alice said. "You got it pretty close this time, though."

Hitomi sighed. "I have to start again?" she shook her head. "You weren't kidding when you said combat spells were harder to learn." she looked down at the large brown paper pad, which had been moved into her new room. It had taken them only about ten minutes to get her witches barrier up and running, twenty more to recover with the help of some potions. But this spell...

"Perhaps we should take a break?" Alice said. "We've been at this for two hours now. Maybe a little time out before trying again will help."

Hitomi sighed. "Nothing else is working. We might as well try, I guess." she leaned back, sighing. She chose this spell from the list because it was apparently easy to learn, but inefficient. She was glad she chose what she had. If this was 'easy', then she didn't think she would have had the time to learn the others at all. As it was, she figured she would get this one down in perhaps another half hour or so. She sighed again. Alice nudged her reassuringly. "You're doing really well for your second day, Hitomi. It took me a week to learn my first ten spells, and this particular spell took me two days to get. You already have forty memorized, and I can't see this taking us more than another few tries."

"Yeah, and you were, what, six at the time?" Hitomi said flatly. "I'm not sure how reassuring this is."

"I'm a seventeenth generational spectrum witch." Alice said. "Witchcraft has been running in my blood for almost six hundred years now. The fact that you're capable, on your second day, of doing things I had trouble with would be really impressive if you were thirty-five."

"Fine, fine. It just doesn't seem that way." Hitomi said, looking to the pile of crumpled and discarded pages in the corner. She let her eyes wander around the room, trying to take her mind off the spell. She'd chosen this one because it had an electrical light fixture installed already. Alice said they had used it as a storage room at one point. While Alice's candles did give a very nice atmosphere to her room, Hitomi was more comfortable in the glow of florescent light. Aside from the light-bulb and the paper pad, the room was empty except for a small cot in the far corner. Hitomi highly doubted she would use this room for much outside of recharge and recuperation, so she didn't really feel the need to make it any more homely. She supposed perhaps a small chair would be nice, in case she needed to seat anyone for some reason.

She shook her head. Bare or not, she hadn't ever expected to get a room in a castle, let alone a castle in a magical world. It seemed a bit silly to her, the fact that she was still found her situation to be interesting. It had been more than two full days now. But there was still a voice in her head saying that the fact that she was sitting in a stone room in an ancient castle next to a spectral witch who was teaching her magic was not normal. She guessed it would fade with enough time.

Hitomi turned to the pad, ripping off the top sheet and crumpling it, tossing it into the pile with the others. "We should probably get going before I scab over. My fingers are already going to scar from this, I can tell."

"After the battle, I'll teach you a spell for erasing scars." Alice said.

"That would be nice." Hitomi said. "Hopefully, I won't need it for anything other than my fingers."

There was a brief pause. Hitomi saw Alice's face drop. Two and a half hours of wait had sapped any enthusiasm from her, and it was clear that the idea of the battle ahead now only brought feelings of fear and sadness. Hitomi was about to try to comfort Alice when she stirred again. She took a deep breath and turned back to Hitomi, determination in her eyes. "It's going to work this time. Come on."

Hitomi nodded, turning to the blank page. She felt Alice's hand on her shoulder, and a calming sensation went through her. Rubbing her thumb against her index finger until she felt the blood flowing again, Hitomi began to outline the spell. Her mind cleared. Somehow, it felt more natural now. She streaked her blood across the page, precisely outlining the circle from her memory. Each iteration had been bringing her to this. She finished the pattern in a minute, standing up as she completed the final strokes.

Nothing happened for several seconds.

Alice peered at it closely. "I think you drew one of the internal symbols backwards." she said slowly after a moment. "But otherwise it's perfect. I wonder..." she closed her eyes, flicking her wrist. Hitomi's inscription flashed blue-white for a moment, and the offending symbol disappeared. "Quickly, retrace it before the blood dries!" Alice said, and Hitomi did so. This time, she felt the magic inside her resonate as her new line intersected the edge of her old, completing the circle. A half second delay, and it began to glow with emerald light. Hitomi giggled. Finally.

"Lucky you didn't bring anything into the room." Alice said. "Quickly, chose a target or the attack will just go off randomly!"

Hitomi turned quickly, pointing at the far wall. Five spectral swords appeared, hovering before her for about one second before spinning to point in the direction she indicated, streaking across the room almost too fast for Hitomi to follow. They slammed into the wall, her room briefly lighting up in a ghostly pale green as the impacts forced her barrier to become visible. The blades shattered on impact with the barrier, the shards scattering and fading in flashes of green light. Hitomi blinked. "That was certainly something." she said after a moment.

"No fair." Alice said, pouting. "I only get three shapeless beams." she sighed. "I suppose it makes sense. I do specialize in utility magic. Still, I mean, that was mid-level meta-weapon casting." she punched Hitomi lightly in the shoulder. "Looks like you're a combat specialist; specifically, a weapon-caster. You'll be best at short and mid range, and your combat spells of choice will be those which summon magical weapons." she giggled. "Usually it takes longer to figure out a specialization than this, but we got lucky. Now I know what combat spells to teach you in the future."

"Weapon-casting combat specialist?" Hitomi said. "Well, I suppose that's fortunate."

"I'm sure De-De will be happy." Alice said. "He always complains about being the only combat mage in the party. Apparently he thinks it makes him a bigger target."

"Always gank the wizard first." Derick said, leaning in on the open door. He tapped lightly on the invisible wall of Hitomi's barrier. "Alice, can you let me in?"

"Oh, yeah, I should probably teach you how to how to let people in and out of your barrier, shouldn't I?" Alice said to Hitomi, turning to Derick. "Though why, exactly, are you here De-De?"

"I heard a loud crashing noise." he said flatly. "You two seem to have a knack for making a lot of strange and sketchy sounding noises whenever we leave you alone for any length of time. One of these days you're actually going to have hurt yourselves, and we're just going to ignore it."

"Sorry." Hitomi said. "I didn't expect the spell to be so... flashy."

"Neither did I." Alice said. "That was really impressive, Hitomi."

"Good!" Eve said, walking towards the three. "I'm glad you managed to get something down, Hitomi. We leave in five minutes."

There was a brief pause as the other three people turned to look at Eve with semi-incredulous looks on their faces. She sighed. "What, did you think I would tell my plan exactly when there was a spy about? Of course I lied. Come on. We don't have time to gawk."

"Five..." Hitomi said, looking at her hands.

"Don't worry if you can't do much yet." Eve said. "You and Alice are on backup anyway. Hopefully, you won't need to fight tonight at all." she winked as Alice pouted. "Don't give me that. You've gotten more action than the rest of us, remember? And I did say hopefully. If something comes around at us from behind, then we'll need you two to be ready. But it's a simple fact that you don't put your utility mage out on the front lines unless you have to."

"Fine." Alice said. "But you can't keep me in reserves forever. If the first time you let me into the thick of it is when we're up against the final boss, I won't stand a chance. You're going to have to let me grow enough on my own before that."

Hitomi saw sadness pass over Eve's face for a moment before she regained her composure. "I know. But you have a friend to protect tonight, Alice. I need you with Hitomi because Hitomi can't handle herself yet, not because you can't handle yourself. If you're on the front lines, you can't concentrate on protecting her, can you? And you know that you're the weakest combat wise, so you're the only one we can spare off the strike team to protect her."

Eve's eyes flashed briefly to Hitomi, who nodded to her curtly. She knew what Eve was doing. She could handle being the needy child for a while if it meant Alice would keep out of the fight.

"She's right." Hitomi said. "I only know one combat spell that I've used one time. I've never knocked someone out before in my life, let alone killed anyone. I'm not ready, Alice. I need you to help me tonight."

Alice didn't seem happy about it, but she sighed. She put an obviously false smile on and gave Hitomi what she could only assume she thought was a reassuring look. "Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you."

"Good. So, that's settled then." Eve said, nodding at the others. "Meet me downstairs right away. We head out as soon as everyone is gathered."

Hitomi nodded. She turned to Alice, grabbing her hand. "Let's do this."

Alice nodded, squeezing Hitomi's hand back. The two girls stepped through the barrier together, and marched downstairs, set in lockstep like soldiers off to start their war.

##########

End Chapter Report:

Shizuki Hitomi has unlocked the achievement 'Natural Born Killer' for discovering her combat specialty.

Shizuki Hitomi has unlocked the achievement 'No Turning Back' for reaching fifty hours without regretting her decision.


	5. Chapter the Fifth

Chapter the fifth, in which people do most of the things they talked of in the previous chapter, and Alice is surprisingly useful.

May 20, 03:53 PM – Fifty-four days, eight hours, seven minutes remaining.

"That's everyone, then." Eve said as Lilly walked in, bow and quiver equipped on her back. "We're ready to go."

"A bit short notice, Eve." Silvia said, scowling. "What happened to the other two hours we were supposed to have?"

"Spy, remember? We can't give them any time to report back to their masters." Eve said. "We're going right now, and we're hitting the second closest. Otherwise, the plan is unchanged."

"Yeah, but I don't have all my potions done." Silvia said. "Lilly is missing half her arrows, Fox is only carrying two weapons, and Hitomi is still bleeding from the last spell circle she traced. We're not ready, Eve. Five hours was ridiculous to expect. Three hours without warning is impossible."

"We'll be fine." Eve said. "We have the best team in the worlds gathered here. The impossible is our mundane. Against us, they don't-"

"We don't need a pep talk." Silvia snapped. "We need more time. Eve, if we go in there now, we will be killed."

"I'm ready." Fox said.

"You're always ready." Lilly said flatly.

"That said, I don't think things are quite as bad as you're making them out to be, Silvia." Derick said, raising an eyebrow at her. "Just because it takes you hours to set up doesn't mean the rest of us need that long. I'm sure the extra hours would help, but for most of us we're about as good now as we'll ever be."

"Whelp, I'm out, then." Silvia said. The others turned to look at her. She rolled her eyes. "I prioritized making healing potions. I don't have anything for combat. I didn't get to it."

There was a brief pause. Eve shook her head slowly, laughing softly for a moment. "I'm sorry." she said. "I should have given you some advanced warning. It completely slipped my mind that you actually have to make your weapons before each fight."

"Nah, it's okay." Silvia waved her hand dismissively. "I was just being difficult because I knew if you went I'd have to sit out. You seven will kick plenty of ass without me, I'm sure. Just don't go and get yourselves too hurt, okay?"

"I thought that was what your healing potions were for." Eve said playfully.

"They can only do so much." Silvia said quietly.

"Well, that's that, then." Eve said, turning to the rest of the group. Hitomi felt a chill pass over her. She swallowed hard. Alice squeezed her hand gently, and Hitomi returned the gesture. "We're off. Derick, do you have the coordinates?"

Derick swiped through his spell book, selecting a few readouts from the screen. "Ready whenever you are."

"Good. Teleporting in five." Eve said. "four... three... two... one..."

Hitomi shut her eyes.

"Now." Eve said. Hitomi felt a tingling pass over her, and then nothing. She opened her eyes. They were in an open field somewhere now, though she could still see the forest surrounding them on all sides at a distance. Derick flipped through his spell book a second time, and Hitomi closed her eyes again. Alice leaned into her.

"Just two more." she said quietly.

Hitomi nodded as the tingling washed over her again. She kept her eyes closed this time, just waiting for the jump.

"Last one." Derick said. "Get ready. When we drop in, we have no idea how they'll react to us. I'm going to put us down five hundred meters from the edge, so depending on the area, they could spot us immediately. We'll have to be set to fight within one second of appearing. Are we good?"

"Let's do this already!" Fox said eagerly.

"Okay. Here goes." Derick said, and Hitomi felt the tingling again. As soon as they appeared, she opened her eyes, looking around quickly to get an idea of the surrounding area. Her eyes went wide. There was an obvious encampment within a minutes run from them across a clear desolate landscape. A few piles of dirt, seemingly recently overturned, were distributed irregularly around the camp. Perhaps twenty tents stood there, and she could see people walking between them clearly in the lights of the bonfires scattered about the camp. If they hadn't been spotted yet, they would be shortly.

"There are... thirty-seven of them." Derick said, reading from his screen.

"That's not quite eight for each of us." Fox said. "Not fair. I thought this would be more interesting than that."

"Heh." Eve drew her pistols. "Don't knock it. Derick, can you introduce us?"

"On it." he began to type rapidly into his spell book, and Hitomi saw the ground around him begin to glow. Lilly had taken out a little wooden flute and was playing a song on it, though Hitomi heard no noise. Max drew a large glowing weapon which looked like a cross between an assault rifle and a miniature cannon that someone had strapped glow-sticks to. Alice snapped, several large white magical circles floating around her at the ready. Hitomi swallowed hard, tapped her belt buckle, and drew her sword.

Derick pointed his hand upwards with a flourish, and a wave of flame shot forth, coalescing into a tight stream of fire which arched upwards rapidly. The people in the camp turned to the small group, and Hitomi thought she heard shouting between them. They only had about three seconds to react as Derick's attack closed in on them at half the speed of sound. There was a flare as the bolt hit the ground, and half the tents caught fire.

Hitomi looked to the others to see what they were doing, only to find them already running into battle. Eve had nearly covered the distance already, her flight ten times as fast as Fox's run. He was screaming at the top of his lungs, and Hitomi could see the grin on his face from where she stood. Lilly was running purposefully and quietly towards a small collection of rocks about fifty meters from the edge of the camp from where, Hitomi assumed, she intended to provide archer support. Max was lagging behind Fox, but seemed to have similar intention.

"You two stay safe." Derick said to Alice and Hitomi, tapped his spell book's screen, and disappeared.

Alice tugged Hitomi's hand. "Come on!" she said, pulling her towards the battle.

"I thought we were supposed to be backup." Hitomi said. "We should stay here."

"Yeah, but they're not looking at us now." Alice said. "Don't you want to get in on the action? This is our chance to show them we can handle ourselves."

"Alice..." Hitomi started, but Alice was already dragging her, laughing. Hitomi sighed and started running with her. "Slow down a bit. I can't keep up!"

The two witches ran into battle, slowly catching up with the others. Hitomi heard gunshots begin to ring out, and saw Eve's weapons discharging. She rained bullets down from the heavens, and the people below began to scream out as she landed and drew her blade. Derick and Max were standing back to back, three small fireballs floating in Derick's hand, each blast of Max's weapon blowing a hole in whatever he pointed it at. Fox was in the thick of it, his enemies unable to figure out exactly where he was, unable to block his strikes as he cut through them.

"Oh, come on." Alice said huffing. "By the time we get there they'll be done!"

"Then why don't we worry about the fourteen people who aren't there?" asked Hitomi. Alice paused, looking at her.

"What?"

Hitomi sighed, shaking her head. "This is a military camp, right? No general dispatches thirty-six men and a commander. They dispatch fifty and a commander, or perhaps forty-nine and a commander. Thirteen or fourteen men are unaccounted for."

"That's..." Alice paused. "A very good point, actually." she spun on her heal, facing backwards. There was a brief pause.

"Nope. Don't see anyone." Alice said. "And it's not like they have anywhere they could hide on an open plane like this."

"That can't be right." Hitomi said, looking around as well. "They should be here somewhere." her eyes settled on the plane, and she went numb. "Alice, we need to get to the others right now."

"Why?" Alice said. Hitomi pointed to the ground.

"You see those piles of dirt?" Hitomi said. "I don't think they're piles of dirt."

Alice's eyes flickered across the ground quickly. "Sixty-four piles, to bring us to one hundred men and one commander." she shook her head. "But that can't be. They would have had to know we were coming."

"It's not important right now!" Hitomi hissed. "We need to warn the others!"

There was a flash of light from behind the girls, and they turned to see the aftermath of a large explosion, Eve removing herself from the blast rapidly while still discharging her guns repeatedly. It looked like the camp was nearly destroyed by now. The ground shook as the blast-wave overtook the two girls.

"Signal?" Alice asked, and Hitomi nodded curtly.

"Could be. Prepare for combat!" she saw some of the dirt piles begin to shift. "We need to hold here for long enough for the others to notice."

"Got it." Alice's spell circles once again glowed, and Hitomi waited, prepared to cast her spell as soon as she had a target.

One of the things popped out only a few meters from her, and Hitomi gasped. It wasn't a man, that was for sure. Its face glowed with sickly red markings, and it seemed to be half shadow. It turned its eyes to Hitomi, looking deep into her with the pitch black pits in its head. It opened its mouth and let out a low cackle, drawing a evil looking blade from its belt.

Hitomi flicked her wrist, a flash of green light briefly illuminating the face of the creature before it was torn apart by her spectral blades. Turning on her heal, she pointed at the next target, her blades following her command. She spun, killing anything that got closer than five meters. Alice wasn't letting them get that far. She waited until a group of eight had closed in on her, then released all her spells at once. The three nearest attackers were torn to shreds while the five behind only suffered major blast damage, being thrown backwards. Hitomi sighed, watching her last blade break and summoning herself a second set. "You know, you have to teach me how to hold precast spells like that at some point." she growled, and Alice giggled.

"Once we're done here." she said, pointing over Hitomi's shoulder and knocking back one of the things who had gotten too close. "How are you doing?"

"Better than I expected." Hitomi said, flicking her wrist and drawing her blades to her. She stood back to back with Alice. "I think I've gotten five of them so far."

"And this'll be ten for me." Alice said, letting loose a wave of small blast spells. "You feeling any drain?"

"Starting to." Hitomi said. "I'm also getting the feeling that this is to easy."

"Yeah, me too." Alice said. "What do you want to bet that the things we've killed aren't actually dead?"

"Wouldn't surprise me." Hitiomi flicked a motion with her sword, and the spectral blades engaged three of the creatures as they approached. "We won't be able to hold this for much longer."

"Oh, drop!" Alice said, and Hitomi did so. There was a flurry of blast spells over her head, and she saw a few of the creatures that Alice had taken out get hit again just as they began to rise. Hitomi spun upwards, quickly recasting her spell as the line broke.

"Okay, scratch that." Alice said as the creatures in front of her rose again as well. "I've gotten three of them, I think. So much for being ahead of you."

"Well, I'm the one with the combat magic proficiency." Hitomi said, summoning a second set to help the first, now commanding nine blades at once. "It makes sense that I'd be doing better in combat."

"Fair-" Alice grunted, letting a wave of energy forth and knocking back her attackers, one of them exploding into dust. "-enough."

There was a screech, and the men in front of Hitomi parted, two large black beasts snarling down at her. They were two meter tall wolf like creatures with glowing eyes, ivory white teeth and claws, and a stench like death. One took a step towards her, barking loudly. A thin vale of black smoke trailed off it. Hitomi felt a chill go down her back.

The nearer creature lunged at her, bounding five meters through the air and landing just in front of Hitomi. She reflexively slashed out at it with her sword, and felt it slice the beasts flesh. It howled, and she sprang backwards, attempting to put distance between her and it. She steadied herself, sword at the ready, drawing her spectral blades back to her to hit it from behind.

It lunged at her again, lower than she had expected. She was given about a quarter of a second to be shocked before she felt its teeth clamp around her right leg. Her spectral blades impacted on it, and it unclasped as the magical weapons sliced deep into its hide. The creature reeled, collapsing in front of Hitomi.

Hitomi had just about long enough to witness this happen before her mind finally caught up with the pain in her leg. She'd never really been hurt before, not like this. Sure, she'd had scrapes. She thought those had hurt. She was ready for that. She figured that was pain.

It wasn't.

That was the slightest, palest facsimile of what pain was. That was nothing. That was closer to perfect condition than it was to real pain. That was closer to ecstasy than it was to real pain. Hitomi saw black spots playing across her eyes. Her leg was burning inside with a million fires, torn to part by a thousand hooks, stabbed into oblivion by a billion needles. She felt sick. Her mind went blank. This was it. She was done. Nothing existed outside of her agony. She couldn't see. She couldn't think. Nothing else registered. A little voice inside her head helpfully informed her that she was probably going to die if she didn't snap out of it, but she ignored it. She couldn't think about that right now. She was in too much pain to think about that right now.

Inside her head, blinded by her pain, she spun into dark circles of internal torture. Nothing could escape it. No thoughts broke her perfect misery. There was nothing left of her to break it.

Hitomi hadn't the slightest idea of how long she stayed like that. It felt like hours, but it couldn't have been more than a couple seconds, really. Her eyes fluttered open. She saw the creatures coming towards her, saw the other great wolf bare its fangs. She saw, but it didn't really matter. She couldn't think straight anyway. She was sort of disappointed in herself for failing so quickly, but there wasn't all that much she could do about it at this point. Any moment now, she would fall into a blissful sleep of non-existence, and it would be over with.

There was a flurry of white blasts over her head. Hitomi watched, almost in slow motion, as a few of the nearest creatures were flung backwards. It seemed so silly to her. Why didn't they just end it already? She wouldn't stop them.

The second wolf-thing leaped over her, and her eyes followed it as it flew through the air towards Alice. Something in her tugged at her foggy mind. Alice deflected it with a shield, but she was knocked to the ground in the process. Some of the other creatures began to advance on Alice as she lost concentration. They swarmed around her, preparing for the final assault.

_She's going to die if you don't do something._

Hitomi felt a strange charge build through her system. In all the stories, they say the pain melts from the hero and they fight on, regardless of their wounds. But stories lie. The pain did not go away. The pain didn't change at all. What changed was her will.

Letting out a scream of abject anguish, Hitomi stood up, her mind clearing as she prepared to help Alice, regardless of what was in her way. Her vision went white from agony, but she fought through her pain anyway, preparing herself to attack again. It just didn't matter anymore. Either she did this, or Alice died. It was that simple. She had someone to protect. She couldn't quit now.

Hitomi felt power flush through her system. Her eyes glowed green, her sword lit with spectral flame, her hair exploded in a rush behind her. Two marks, then three, silhouetted her in emerald light. She let herself buzz with energy for a moment, then turned to her foes.

Still screaming in pain, she ran at the dark wolf and sliced it clean in two with a single strike. Spinning on her good leg, she flicked her hand, summoning a cloud of twenty-seven blades, sending them dancing around her. With a feral bellow, she threw her hands into the air, another rush of power overcoming her. Her hair began to shimmer with light, the final third turning gold. A fourth marker finished a half-halo behind her, lending her power. From her body pulsed a wave of emerald light, throwing back their assailants nearly fifteen meters and searing them across the front. Hitomi glanced down to Alice, who was looking up at her in shock.

"You look... good." Alice said lamely.

Hitomi turned to face the attackers. They were regarding her wearily, and seemed unwilling to approach. She snapped, drawing her blades to her. If they wouldn't attack her, she would go to them. She sent her blades whirring out, the still shaky line collapsing under her assault. Hitomi kept the pressure on, summoning more and more weapons until she began to feel the drain even in her fourth form. She concentrated on the swords, commanding them to strike as feverishly as she could force them to.

Slowly, her wall was pressed backward. Hitomi flicked her wrist, confused, concentrating on area after area as they one by one drew in to her. Suddenly it struck her that, though she easily had the power to summon and maintain one hundred blades, she had no where near the skill required. She felt a panic rise in her chest as her first row shattered, the simple patterns of attack leaving her magic easily open to retaliation. A thrown dagger slit her arm; she faltered slightly, and the enemy pressed up two meters before she regained control. Furious, she redoubled her efforts for a moment, then recoiled as her wild strikes left her even more open. The enemy approached again. The spectral blades were shattered one by one, emerald flashes lighting up the night, jeweled green dust carried by the wind. Alice's blasts joined her, but even still, they were fighting a losing battle. The numbers of active weapons dwindled, until only seven remained. Hitomi had gotten perhaps ten of their number in this all told, another ten between the two of them prior. Forty men still surrounded them, their weapons gleaming.

Hitomi gritted her teeth and prepared to tear them apart, gathering her strength for a final, overwhelming attack, when a glowing pink arrow sprouted from one of their backs. Relief washed over her. Not pausing, Hitomi threw her magic at them as the others arrived, attacking them from the side. Fox swung into action immediately, Max and Derick drawing in to protect Hitomi and Alice. Eve landed at the edge of Hitomi's perimeter, joining her spectral weapons with her own sword. From her position, Hitomi could not see Lilly, but her arrows thinned out the crowd, strike after strike making its mark. Internally, Hitomi let out a sigh of relief. For all her display of power, she had no idea how to actually fight. Had they not shown up, she would have most likely lost within a few moments.

Between the seven of them, they didn't have too much trouble. Hitomi didn't manage to kill to many more, but her blades kept them inclosed as her allies tore them apart one by one. By the time Hitomi's will failed her, they had gotten over fifty of the sixty-four. Hitomi felt her power leaving her in a rush, her hair turning to dust behind her as she collapsed. Max caught her on her way down as Derick slammed a fireball into three of the stragglers. Within twenty seconds, they were all dead.

"How is she?" Eve said, pointing to Hitomi who groaned piteously in Max's arms.

"I think her leg is shattered." Max said. "Really badly. Like, possibly permanently injured really badly."

Hitomi didn't comment except to moan especially loudly as Max shifted her.

"We'll treat her as soon as we get done here." Eve said. She took a few steps towards Hitomi, and placed her fingers on her forehead. Hitomi shuddered, then felt the pain going away. After a few seconds, it was no more than a dull ache.

"I'm surprised you could stand with that." Eve said. "That was pretty impressive."

"What did you..." Hitomi started, then sighed. "Magic, right. I'm guessing you didn't actually fix anything, though?"

"Yeah, just a painkiller. A really good one, but a painkiller." Eve said. "Don't move."

"I don't plan on it." Hitomi said. There was a pause. No one seemed to have much to say, their thoughts still in shock from the battle. Hitomi took a deep breath, breaking the silence. "So, we won."

"Yeah, we won." Eve said. "Thanks to you and Alice." she glanced away for a moment, then looked straight at Alice. "You did a lot better than I thought. Better than I gave you credit for. I'm sorry."

Alice's face lit up despite her exhaustion, and she smiled happily at Eve, not saying a word.

"It was a bit harder than I expected, but I think this turned out well." Fox said. "Hitomi was the only one seriously injured, and we managed to fend off a surprise attack and destroy the camp in only three minutes. One hundred to seven, and we did just fine."

"Where is the commander?" Max asked, lying Hitomi on the ground. "We still need to find him to interrogate, don't we?" he paused, then groaned. "Don't tell me we killed him in the fray."

"No, he's hiding here somewhere." Eve said. "I can smell it."

"They were under the piles of dirt." Hitomi said. "Maybe he didn't come out?"

"Wait, let me check." Alice said, quickly scanning the ground. "Yep, there's one pile of dirt that hasn't changed from before." she pointed out at it. "He'll be under there."

"I'm curious as to how they knew to hide." Fox said. "You'd think that a spy would have a hard time informing them so quickly."

"You'd think." Eve said flatly. "I think I've figured part of that out, and it's just as I feared. On the plus side, we can all stop being as paranoid, but the explanation can wait until we finish up here."

"Sorry I wasn't much help." Lilly said, joining the group. "There weren't any animals in range to command, I'm afraid."

"It's fine. You still got at least ten of them." Max said. "Heck, even our utility mage got four or five."

"I'm a spectral witch, not a mage." Alice huffed, not really paying attention.

"What can I say?" Eve said, turning to the group with a smile. "We're really quite good at this."

"Don't get cocky." Lilly said. "These were the weakest troops, and we start out strongest. Triple their number and we would have been hard pressed to get out alive. We can't keep up this level of damage for very long. Don't go throwing us at any armies just yet, Eve."

"I wasn't planing on it." Eve said. "I figured we could use a break after this, actually. We are two weeks ahead of our initial schedule after all."

"Can we just get this done?" Derick asked. "Preferably before Hitomi's leg starts to set on its own."

"Right. Sorry." Eve said, walking over to the pile of dirt. She waved her hand, and her red sparks cocooned the mass of dirt, removing it quickly. Beneath the dirt, there lay a large iron box. Runes were etched in the sides, and Eve took a step back.

"Don't touch the box." she warned, shuttering. "It'll wipe the last six months of your memory if you do."

"So, we need to get inside?" Max asked, walking over to the box. "How do you propose doing that? There doesn't appear to be a latch or door of any kind."

"You did bring a utility proficient witch along with you for a reason." Alice said, walking to the box. "Give me a moment..." she closed her eyes, then flicked her wrist, reaching her hand through a pentagram in front of her. She pulled out a cutting torch from thin air, clicking it into action and putting it to the metal. She sliced through a few of the runes on the edges first, breaking the spell. Moving onto the box, she began to cut a hole in the top.

"The box is pretty thick. This might take a while." she said.

"We just need you to punch a small hole." Eve said. "So long as we can hear through it clearly, that should be enough."

"Got it." Alice said. Sparks flew as she slowly cut through the top. "Thirty seconds, maybe."

Eve drew her blade and stepped up behind Alice, tapping her shoulder and casting a shield of red sparks around her. "Just in case they try something." she said quietly.

"Oh, come on." Alice pouted over the sound of rending metal. "I can handle someone trapped in a locked box. You don't need to-"

The cage shook, and a bolt of black energy hit Alice square in the chest, throwing her five meters into the air and shattering the shield. She landed next to Hitomi, who turned her head to look at her friend. Alice gasped for breath violently, coughing. With the shield, it seemed that she had only been winded.

"You were saying?" Eve said playfully.

"Gah." Alice got back to her feet. "Lucky shot." she rolled her eyes, then sighed. "Thanks, Eve."

"Don't mention it." Eve said, snapping her fingers and letting her power engulf the box, flooding it. The box shook for a couple seconds, and red light flashed from the crack Alice had cut. There were a series of banging noises, and then everything went quiet.

"Should be fine now." Eve said. "Cary on cutting."

"On it." Alice returned to her work, finishing without trouble. There was a clang, and a panel ten centimeters on a side dropped in. Nothing happened for a few seconds. Alice peered over the hole, careful not to touch the still molten metal on the edges.

"Hello?" she asked airily, to no reply. Alice waited a few seconds, then queried again. "Hello?" again, there was no response. She sighed, turning to Eve. "Are you sure you didn't kill him?"

"Yes, I'm sure." Eve said. "Here, let me try." Eve took a few steps forward, then spoke clearly in a language that Hitomi understood despite having never before heard it. The words seemed to shimmer in the air, and Hitomi could feel their power as Eve spoke.

"_**I, Eve, warrior of the light, challenge the spawn of darkness which rests inside this cage. You will respond to me.**_"

Hitomi shuttered. It was unsettling, hearing Eve say these words. The sounded old somehow, almost like they made things what they were and not simply described them. Inside the box, noises began to rise.

"You'll get nothing from me, Valkyrie." a deep voice spat from inside the cage, gravelly and twisted. "You are but the lowest warrior of the light. You have no power over me, despite your pretty words."

"It's not my pretty words you should concern yourself with." Eve said. "I just needed to wake you up."

"I will not fall for your tricks, Valkyrie." the voice hissed. "I will die before I tell you anything, pawn of the day!"

"Oh, now, that wasn't very nice to say." Lilly said softly. "You should apologize to Eve." Hitomi nearly gagged. Even from ten meters away, facing in the opposite direction, and not directed to her, she had a hard time not following Lilly's command. Her voice was layered with mesmerizing tones. Eve might be able to speak the language of creation, but Hitomi had no question that Lilly's words were stronger. This is what a siren could do when they actually tried.

"Forgive me." the voice said without hesitation. It sounded sincere enough to Hitomi. "I'm sorry I insulted you, Eve."

"Oh, I'm sure she'll forgive you." Lilly said. "Now, if you wouldn't mind telling us where the first champion of your master is, I would be ever so happy."

"Of course." there was a flash of light, and a black scroll appeared before Lilly. "With this, you'll be able find him."

"Oh, thank you ever so much, dear." Lilly said.

"Don't mention it." he said shortly.

Lilly stood up, looking at the scroll. "It looks real enough to me." she told the others. "It seems to be a location beacon map. Should point us in the right direction as long as the set target is somewhere on the planet."

"Well, that's all we needed." Eve said. "Mission complete. Let's head back to base, team!"

Everyone nodded, gathering together. Max picked up Hitomi, supporting her from below. Derick began to fiddle with his spell book again, preparing to teleport them home.

"Hey..." the voice grumbled, seeming to be coming out of its stupor. "No, I can't give you..."

"Oh, dear?" Lilly called. "Do me a favor and kill yourself, will you?"

There was a brief pause. "Please?" Lilly asked, her voice layering again. The box was silent for a moment more. "Pretty please?"

The box shook briefly, the sound of rending flesh and bone emanating from the hole. Lilly sighed. "Tough one. I usually don't have that much trouble."

Hitomi shuttered.

"Did you have to do that?" Max said, sighing. "That's really creepy, Lilly."

"Should I have not? Were you planning on letting him live? Is there a problem with how I chose to kill my toys?" Lilly snapped, and Max took a step back.

"Of course not." Max said quickly. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have questioned you. Of course you're right." he cast his eyes down, as if he felt that he had truly overstepped his bounds, mutely submitting to Lilly.

Lilly shook her head, a smile twitching on her lips. Hitomi watched a battle of wills cross her face, as if she was enjoying this but knew that she shouldn't be. Lilly took a deep breath, and seemed to clear her head, regaining a measure of control.

"Sorry." she said quietly. "There is a reason I don't like using my power to its fullest. It... changes me."

"No kidding." Derick said, finishing the work in his spell book. "Can the take-over wait until we get back to base?"

"I'm..." Lilly said quietly, but let it trail off. Hitomi thought she might have seen a tear drop from Lilly, but she couldn't be sure, as at that moment the teleport went off. She tried to close her eyes, but it was too late; the experience, as she had assumed, was not pleasant. She shuddered as they rematerialized. Her brain couldn't really make much sense from the quarter-second of non-existence she had witnessed, but it had left her about as shaken as she had expected. She shook her head, clearing it, and clamped her eyes shut this time before the teleport went off a second time, then a third. She opened her eyes to find their group just outside of the castle. Silvia saw them materialize, and she walked smartly towards Hitomi and Max.

"What happened to her?" she asked flatly. "If a tough little girl is letting you carry her, it must be serious. How many bones are broken, and where are they?"

"Her right leg." Max said. "It got hit real bad. Some dire wolf thing bit it pretty hard."

"Then it's even worse that I thought." Slivia said, poking Hitomi's leg with a finger. Hitomi winced. It didn't hurt, Eve's spell was still working, but she was pretty sure that there was no joint there to let her leg giggle like that.

"Why do you say..." Max started, then stopped, his eyes going wide. "Oh, no."

"What?" Hitomi said. "What's wrong?"

"You're leg's so broken that I can jiggle it with a touch." Silvia said. "And you said that happened from a bite." she poked it with a finger again. "So, by now, my hand should be soaked in blood, right?"

Hitomi felt a pit fall in her stomach.

"Now, I'm no medical expert, but I would have thought that there would be at least a little blood." Silvia said. "I can't be sure exactly what it means yet, but it can't possibly be good." she turned to Alice. "Is there any witchy thing we should do before I try to stabilize her?"

"We should take her to her room." Alice said. "It will help."

Silvia nodded, turning to the others. "And how about you? Any other injuries I need to worry about?"

"Some cuts and bruises, but Hitomi is the only one in need of immediate attention." Eve said. "We got lucky this time."

"Aw, only one challenge? I had hoped for something more interesting." Silvia said. Hitomi and Alice both gave her a long, long look. She put her hand up to stave off their stares. "Sorry, that was in bad taste. Max, do you mind caring Hitomi the rest of the way to her room? I'll be right with you once I get my supplies."

Max nodded, and Eve waved her hand. "You're all dismissed." she said. "Go get Hitomi to her room."

The group broke, each attending to their wounds and recovering in their own ways. Max carried Hitomi through the halls, up the stairs, and to her room, careful not to hit her against anything. Alice followed closely behind, never taking her eyes off Hitomi as they passed through the building. It wasn't long before the three were standing outside of Hitomi's room, Max tapping against the invisible wall of Hitomi's witches barrier impotently.

"Do you mind letting me in?" he asked Alice, minor tones of exasperation in his voice.

"Oh, shoot." Alice said, shaking her head. "I never actually showed you how to..." she shook her head. "Never mind. Hitomi, I'm really sorry about this, but you need it." Alice put her hand on the edge of the barrier, and Hitomi felt a tug in her heart as the area around the door flashed blue white, Alice claiming her for a moment as she took over. Hitomi felt a profound sense of loss, like something internal to her had been stolen, like her core didn't belong to her anymore. She whimpered, unable to keep the feeling inside.

"I'm so sorry." Alice said. "It'll just be a few more seconds." she closed her eyes for a moment, then tugged on Max. "Come on. In you go. I don't want to keep this up any longer than I have to."

Max dutifully entered the room, and Alice let her hand fall from the barrier, the green light overtaking the discolored patch quickly. Hitomi felt control returning to her mind, and she let out a sigh of relief. Max put her down on the cot in the corner, and Alice kneeled beside her, grasping Hitomi's hands in hers.

"Does it hurt?" she asked anxiously.

"No." Hitomi shook her head. "Eve's spell is still working." she squeezed Alice's hand. "Don't worry. I'll be fine."

"You really saved me back there." Alice said. "I was stupid, and I got us in the middle of that mess. If we'd waited where we were told to, we could have warned the others without..." Alice trailed off.

"This wasn't your fault." Hitomi said. "Besides, I'm glad that I was there to help you when you needed it." Hitomi squeezed Alice's hand. "That's what friends are for. If something had happened to you, again, so quickly... I'm not sure I could have taken it, Alice."

"But I feel that way about you, too." Alice said. "I can't stand to see you hurt like this. You..." Alice said, tears brimming on the edges of her eyes. "You're my only friend, Hitomi."

"Hey." Hitomi squeezed Alice's hand again. "I'm not going anywhere, Alice. I bet I'll be up and about by this time tomorrow." Hitomi paused, then shook her head. "I better hope it's faster than that, actually. I have school in only about sixteen hours."

Alice giggled lightly. "You even have the obsession with school." she poked Hitomi. "You really are just a little anime schoolgirl." she gave Hitomi a coy look. "Chasing any senpai?"

"No!" Hitomi said, giggling. She was glad that Alice seemed to have lost her worry. After what had happened, she felt she had earned a little bit of chatting time with a friend, at least until her medical aid got there.

"Come on, I won't tell." Alice said teasingly. "It's not like we go to the same school or something. We don't even live on the same planet. I won't give away your secret love."

"I'm not interested in any upperclassmen." Hitomi said. Her mind briefly flashed to a boy in a hospital bed. "I have enough on my class level already."

"Yeah, you mentioned some boy, right?" Alice said. "Kami-something?"

"Kamijou Kyousuke" Hitomi sighed.

"I suppose it makes enough sense, anyway." Alice said, grinning at Hitomi. "From what I could see, you fit better into a magical girl anime then one of those middle school dramas."

"What?" Hitomi said, shaking her head. "I think this is a little too dark for a magic girl anime."

"Are you kidding me?" Alice laughed. "A middle-schooler with a secret hidden power taken from her normal life to save the world with a team of other magical people? Fighting at night while holding a normal life, keeping your identity hidden to keep your friends safe? You even had the transformation sequence! You're totally a magic girl."

"I suppose you're right." Hitomi paused. "Alice... I'm sorry for not telling you about that whole transformation thing before, but Eve told me not to."

"It's fine." Alice waved off Hitomi's apology. "I understand. Besides, that was one of those things you just had to see." Alice's eyes glowed with admiration as she remembered. "Your hair flowing out long behind your head, trapped in a wind of its own, the end shimmering with golden light as you pointed your hand purposefully at your enemy, your eyes aglow with terrible power..." Alice sighed. "I wish I could do that."

"I wish I could do it on command." Hitomi sighed. "Though I do suppose having life or death situations as a trigger isn't that bad, all things considered. At least it goes off when I need it most."

"I'm sure you'll get the hang of it." Alice said confidently, and Hitomi felt herself believing her words. She was glad Alice was with her. She felt better with her around, somehow, despite all that had happened.

"I wonder what's keeping Silvia." Max said, looking out of the room. "She should be here by now. I'll go see where she is." he took a step, hitting the barrier again. "Or, you know, not." he sighed.

"Sorry." Alice said. "This isn't my barrier, it's Hitomi's. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to teaching her how to let people in and out before we had to leave. I can pass through fine, 'cuz I'm her spectrum leader, but no one else can get through yet. I'd rather not disrupt her barrier if possible. It's not a very nice thing to do to another witch, disrupting their barrier. Like ripping at their soul. The fewer times I have to do it, the better. So, please sit tight until we get this sorted."

"Fine." Max grumbled, sitting down. "Would it kill you to have some chairs in here, Hitomi?"

"Sorry." she said. "I haven't really had the time for that yet." she winced briefly as a pang of agony passed through her leg. It seemed that Eve's spell was beginning to wear off. She hoped that Silvia got there soon.

Silence fell in the room. Alice sat with Hitomi, holding her hand tightly as Hitomi's pain slowly returned. Hitomi was grateful for the gesture. Max took out his weapon again, cleaning it and making sure it was all in one piece. "Oh, that's a good idea." Alice said. "Hitomi, would you give me your blade? We should clean it before it pits from the blood." Hitomi nodded, touching her belt and drawing her blade.

Presently, Slivia arrived, pulling a cart of potions behind her. "Sorry." she said, knocking on the barrier. "I took more then I probably need, just in case. I'm probably worried over nothing, but a bite with no blood is worth considering carefully." she paused, looking from Hitomi to the blade and back to Hitomi. "I would appreciate it if you didn't stab me, Hitomi. No need to draw weapons."

"Sorry. Bad timing." Hitomi said, handing her blade to Alice quickly. Alice laid it down on the floor, stood up, and went to the edge of the barrier.

"Brace yourself." Alice said, and Hitomi shut her eyes, preparing for the emptiness which soon filled her bones and chilled her core. It only took a few seconds this time, for which Hitomi was very grateful.

"Okay, let's see here..." Silvia leaned over Hitomi, prodding at her leg and examining it thoroughly. Hitomi winced with pain every time she touched it, but kept as still as she could. "Well, good news, finally. I know why you're not bleeding. No puncture wounds. The thing didn't have any teeth, any real ones anyway. Makes enough sense, creature of shadow and all that. Still, this leg is in a really bad way." Silvia scratched her head. "I think I can fix it, but it's going to take some time. Three, four days at least."

"Three days?!" Hitomi said. "But I need to get back to class in sixteen hours!" she sighed, then shook her head. "And, beyond that, I can't just disappear from my home for seventy-two... no, eighty hours without warning. Everyone will be worried sick!"

"If we let you back, they'll stick you in a hospital for a few months, and your leg still won't actually heal right." Slivia said curtly. "We'll come up with something to explain your absence."

Hitomi sighed. "I don't really have a say in this, do I?" she said lamely. Silvia grinned.

"Now she gets it." she drew a vial from her cart, giving it to Hitomi. "Now, be a good girl and take your medicine."

Hitomi groaned internally, tipping back the vial and choking down the potion. As she gagged on the last sip, Alice squeezed her hand again, and Hitomi relaxed. It wasn't ideal, to be sure, but they had all made it out of their first real battle alive. All in all, she supposed, things weren't really that bad.

Hitomi laid her head down on her cot, happy in spite of herself. How could she not be? After all, despite all that had happened, she had managed to end the day surrounded by friends.

##########

End Chapter Report:

Shizuki Hitomi is now level 3

Shizuki Hitomi has unlocked the achievement 'Four a Friend' for reaching form four while defending an ally.


	6. Chapter the Sixth

Chapter the Sixth, in which our heroes recover from their battle, and the plot otherwise fails to advance.

May 21, 12:14 AM – Fifty-three days, twenty-three hours, forty-six minutes remaining.

Hitomi slowly lifted her head, blinking in the harsh florescent light of her room, her vision unfocused from the sudden change. She turned over quietly, surprised for a second to see an unconscious girl dressed in all black sleeping on the floor next to her bed. Dimly, her mind registered that she was not in her room at home, but rather in her room in Eve's forest fortress. There was a dull ache in her right leg; she remembered that too, after a little thought. Her mind was uncharacteristically fuzzy, even given that she had just woken up. Hitomi attributed that to Silvia's drugs.

Alice stirred on the floor, and Hitomi realized that she was still holding her hand. She let it fall from her side, and Alice curled into what looked to be a much more comfortable position. She watched her friend for a moment, letting herself wake up slowly before figuring out what to do next.

Carefully, Hitomi sat up, taking a look at her leg. She nearly fainted. It was a ghastly yellow-brown, and swollen to nearly double normal size. It looked dead, rotten, like the flesh of a cadaver that had been grafted onto the body of an otherwise healthy person. Hitomi was afraid to touch it. At least it didn't hurt much, nothing beyond a soft aching pain that let her know that some of the nerves in the mess that had at one time been her right leg were still alive.

Hitomi laid back down on her cot. There wasn't much she could do, she supposed. With her leg like that, there was no way that she was going to be moving any time soon. As much as she hated it, this really was her best option. Three days laying on a bed, and she would be able walk again on a crushed leg. Magic really was wonderful. In any other situation, she would likely have lost use of the leg forever.

Hitomi had the strangest sense that this information was useful in another application, but she couldn't place where, dismissing it after a moment. If it came to her again, she'd chase it then.

Hitomi let herself rest, though she found herself no longer tired enough to sleep, her thoughts active. Her mind kept playing parts of the battle over in her head, searching through them for some kind of meaning. As hard as she tried, she found it difficult to find any point where she had any emotion beyond fear and the occasional burst of anger. She'd just killed fifteen, maybe twenty people. They weren't human, sure, but they didn't seem to be lifeless constructs either. There should have been at least a little hesitation, a little remorse. She thought back to what Derick had said, and she felt her heart go cold. She wasn't like that, right? She was Shizuki Hitomi. Something like this couldn't change her that quickly, could it?

The more she thought about it, the less the battle made sense to Hitomi. How had they known about the attack in time to set up a trap? It seemed impossible for them to have gotten intelligence so quickly, yet their set up was too shoddy to be pre-planed. This wasn't a 'just in case' preparation, it had to have been thrown together at the last minute. And, if she was being honest with herself, she had to admit that there was no way that she, a normal second year middle-school student from Mitakihara, could have manged to do as well against trained magical shadow warriors as she had. She had the distinct impression that they were being played with, somehow.

Eve had said she'd figured out part of the spy problem. Hitomi hoped that she was right. As decisive as their victory had seemed, Hitomi couldn't shake the feeling that they were still catching up from behind. She didn't like it, not one little bit.

There was a knock on the door, and Hitomi opened her eyes, looking out of the room at Eve who stood in the doorway. "Hey." Eve said softly. "Are you awake in there?"

"Yeah." Hitomi said quietly. "But Alice is asleep now, so still be quiet."

"Don't tell her, but she's been asleep for about three hours." Eve said. "She wanted to stay with you real bad, but she was exhausted from the battle. I'm honestly surprised she made it as long as she did."

"What time is it, anyway?" Hitomi queried of Eve, trying to get her time-line back in order.

"It's about a quarter past eleven in the morning." Eve said, and Hitomi coughed.

"What?" she said incredulously. "You're telling me I've been asleep for nineteen hours?"

"What? No, you barely slept for seven and a half." Eve said, confused. Hitomi sighed.

"Timezones, right. You run about eleven hours ahead of me." she looked at her wrist, touching the bare skin. "I should get myself a watch. Two watches even."

An awkward silence began to fill the space between the two of them. Hitomi noted that Eve was purposefully avoiding her direct gaze, her eyes flitting away quickly when she noticed Hitomi examining her. She seemed almost wary of Hitomi for some reason, like she was unwilling or unsure how to hold a conversation with her. When it seemed very clear that Eve was not going to say anything more, Hitomi spoke again.

"You know, it's going to get very boring laying here for the next two and a half or three and a half days." Hitomi prompted. "And I believe we do have a library. Is there any chance you could bring me a book or two to read?"

"Of course. That sounds... good." Eve said. Hitomi was unsure as to why she was so skittish, but she didn't say anything. There was another lengthy pause. "I'll, uh, go do that." Eve said awkwardly, turned, and left. Hitomi shook her head. Perhaps it was the stress? Whatever it was, Hitomi was sure Eve would handle it. She couldn't imagine her staying like that for very long.

A few minutes passed, and Hitomi spent the time looking up at the ceiling, not moving. There was another knock on her door, and Hitomi turned, expecting Eve. She was nowhere to be seen, though Silvia and Derick were there, smiling awkwardly in at her. Hitomi sighed, letting them through the barrier with a quick thought. Luckily barrier control was simple enough that she'd managed to master it before she'd fallen asleep. Internally, she was a bit miffed at Alice for not having taken the two minutes they would have needed for her to master barrier control instead of forcing her barrier open. Hitomi let her anger fade. She knew Alice hadn't meant any harm by it. Under the circumstances, she could see how the thought to teach the highly injured girl how to work magic was not at the forefront of her mind. Still, two minutes. Hitomi shuddered at the memory of the emptiness she had felt when Alice disrupted her barrier. In some ways it had hurt her deeper then the bite, if less severely.

Silvia and Derick entered, Silvia carrying a few potions with her, Derick holding a paperback book. Silvia gave Hitomi a smile as she walked up to her.

"Now, how's my little patient doing?" Slivia asked, taking out one of her bottles and peering up at the light through it. "Feeling any better after your rest?"

"The pain is mostly gone." Hitomi said. "But my leg looks horrible, and I don't think I can move it."

"That's good." Silvia said, leaning over and examining Hitomi's leg carefully. "That's about where you should be now." she tutted, poking Hitomi's leg a few times to get a better look. "Does that hurt?" she asked.

"A bit." Hitomi said. "But not too badly."

"Well, you're coming along faster than I thought." Slivia said. "If you can feel that, the nerves are already growing back. You seem to be healing a good fifty percent faster than I would have guessed. You might be out of here by tomorrow night, instead of the day after."

Hitomi sighed. Another thirty-six hours wasn't ideal, but it was better than another sixty, she supposed. "Are you going to make me drink another one of those potions?" she asked wearily, and Silvia cackled.

"Well, of course!" she handed one to Hitomi. "It's that purple one that you said made you feel like your stomach was trying to crawl out your mouth."

"Great." Hitomi sighed, taking the vial and drinking it as quickly as she could. She gagged, but managed not to spit out half of the potion this time, swallowing it down with a force of will. "My favorite." she said dryly.

"It's two weeks off of your recovery time each one you take." Silvia said. "On average, anyway. Think of it like that and it'll taste better."

"I doubt that." Hitomi said. "Do you have any water?"

"Here you go." Silvia handed her a bulb filled with water, and Hitomi drank from it greedily. "You're taking this a lot better than Alice does. With her, it's a fight to get every single potion down."

"There's no use refusing medicine." Hitomi said. "The way I see it, the sooner I take it, the less I'm likely to need in the long run."

"Now that's the spirit!" Silvia said, clasping Hitomi on the shoulder. Alice stirred on the floor, and Hitomi shushed her.

"Please, Alice is sleeping!" she hissed.

"Eh, she can take a few nights of bad rest. She's young." Silvia said, kicking Alice lightly. "Up, you little lazybones!"

"My head..." Alice murmured, slowly blinking awake. "Does anyone have some water?" she asked, her voice coming out scratchy.

"Silvia!" Hitomi said sternly. "No kicking people in my room." she leaned down, handing Alice her bulb of water. "Here you go, some water."

"Thanks." Alice said, putting the bulb to her lips and draining it quickly. Hitomi smiled at her in spite of herself. Suddenly, beyond the fight, beyond saving the world, Hitomi couldn't wait the fifty-four days until she could introduce Alice to Sayaka and Madoka. She was certain the four of them would become the best of friends. She could almost see it. Sayaka and Alice quibbling over who would lead the days adventures while she and Madoka desperately tried to keep them grounded in reality. The cool summer breeze played at their clothes, lighting up their faces as they turned to her, Sayaka and Alice with their nearly twined grins, Madoka with her kind little smile...

Hitomi shook her head, clearing her sudden drowsiness and concentrating on the people around her. She rolled her eyes at Silvia tiredly.

"You put a sedative in it, didn't you?" she asked, her words coming out partly slurred. "Great. Just as I was wakening up, too."

"You're plenty injured, Hitomi. You need more then seven and a half hours." Slivia said. "Get some rest. We'll be back to see you later."

"Eve told me to give this to you." Derick said, placing the book he was holding next to Hitomi's cot, within her reach. He hesitated, as if he was unsure he should say more. "She's really worried about you, you know. I think she feels a bit responsible for what happened." he said softly.

"Yeah, I could tell." Hitomi said drowsily. "Tell her... I don't mind it. I'm just... glad... that I could help..." Hitomi shook her head again, but it didn't really clear this time. "I think I'm going now."

"Sweet dreams." Derick said. "We'll talk later."

Hitomi didn't say anything, giving in to the sedative and drifting off to sleep.

-*%*-

"Oh, good, she's waking up." Silvia said.

"Finally." Derick said dryly. "I really need to use the bathroom."

"Oh, shut up. It was only about four and a half hours." Silvia said, and Hitomi managed to open her eyes, looking at the two of them sitting in the corner of the room.

"What are you still here for?" she asked, still shaking the sleep from her eyes.

"Well, with you asleep and all, we couldn't get through the barrier." Silvia said. "I probably should have thought that one through, but it all turned out okay in the end."

"Why didn't you just get Alice to let you through?" Hitomi asked, letting a relieved Derick through her barrier and out into the hall.

"I refused." Alice said, stepping into the room with a smile on her face. "I wasn't going to put you through that again unless someone was in serious danger. If they didn't have the forethought to get out while you were awake, they could deal with it."

"My bladder was is serious danger!" Derick called from down the hall.

"Whatever!" Alice giggled. "You're fine, you big baby."

"Well, I'll let you two be alone." Silvia said, getting up and giving Hitomi a wink. "I'm a bit behind on making you some potions anyway, so I have to be getting on."

"Don't rush." Hitomi said dryly.

Silvia laughed and left the room. Alice sat down next to Hitomi, her face dropping from cheer to worry. "Are you feeling alright?" Alice asked. "Your leg looks really bad."

"It doesn't hurt." Hitomi said. "And Silvia said I'm recovering faster than expected. Not nearly soon enough to go to school in four hours, though..."

"Why do you like school so much?" Alice said, scrunching her face. "It always seemed so boring to me. Sitting in a room for hours, having people tell you things."

"It's not boring." Hitomi said, shocked. "The stuff they tell us isn't just random information. We learn things about the world, and how to live in it. What could be more important, more exciting than that?"

"I don't know, having fun?" Alice giggled. "I mean, wouldn't you rather spend the time adventuring in the forest, or playing in the fields, or talking with friends..." she trailed off.

"Well, I guess for you it would be pretty boring." Hitomi said. "They don't tend to cover magic in our classes, so I'm not sure how well it would apply to you. But for me, school teaches exactly what I need to know to have a successful future, so of course I care about it!"

"I guess." Alice said. "It still sounds boring. Useful, maybe, but boring."

"Have you never gone to school?" Hitomi asked, curious.

"I attended a witches school for about three years." Alice said. "It was terrible." she grinned. "So I ran away."

"You ran away from school?" Hitomi asked, confused.

"No, I ran away from home." Alice said. "School was just one of the reasons."

"You're worse then Sayaka." Hitomi shook her head. "No one runs away from home so they don't have to go to school, at least not at, what, nine? Ten?"

"Ten." Alice said. "But, then again, most of them don't go to witches school." Alice smiled darkly. "I only learned five useful things at that place, and the one that came in handy the most was the erase scars spell."

"Oh." Hitomi said. She saw Alice reflexively touch her shoulder, a sad look in her eyes. Hitomi didn't know what to say to that.

"Though, I guess I'm rather glad I went, in the end." Alice said after a moment of silence. "After all, I wouldn't have met Jaxx otherwise."

"Where is he, anyway?" Hitomi asked, glad for the opportunity to change the subject. "I haven't seen him around for a while. I would have thought he'd have been anxious to be with you."

"I sent him away. He's visiting the otherlands. It's basically training for familiars." Alice said. "Besides, he's happy there from what he says, and..."

"You didn't want him to get caught up in the battle." Hitomi finished softly. Alice nodded.

"He's a really good familiar." Alice said. "But, like me, he doesn't specialize in combat. He's just a cat when it comes down to it. If I'd let him stay, he would have taken a blade for me and died. I'm sure he'd be happy to do it, but there's no way I could let him."

"How do you get familiars, anyway?" Hitomi asked. "Can I get one?"

"I don't see why not." Alice said. "Jaxx is technically already your familiar because you're part of my spectrum, but you don't have one of your own yet. It's not that complicated to get one, but you're in no state to do it now. Also, they'd be kind of hard to hide. Familiars tend to be either clingy or very standoffish when you first get them, so you'd have to deal with them in your day-to-day life all the time for at least the first few weeks. Given your situation, I think you might want to hold off until after we save the world."

"Fair enough." Hitomi sighed. "All this stuff is so new to me, I don't know what to worry about first."

"You're handling it really well." Alice said, nudging her. "I'm really glad I met you, Hitomi. You're so calm and reasonable, but not too uptight to have fun when you can. You're kind, and selfless, and caring, and you have a bad-ass magical power to boot." Alice sighed, laying her head on Hitomi's chest. "I wish I was more like you."

"What?" Hitomi said, drawing her fingers through Alice's hair slowly. "Says the girl who stayed up all night after fighting a battle just so that someone would be there if her injured friend woke up? You're already kind and caring, Alice. I admire your boundless energy, your always positive attitude, your matter-of-fact worldview. You might be the nicest girl I know."

"You're just saying that." Alice said.

Hitomi continued playing with Alice's hair. It felt silky beneath her fingers, the long black strands warm and soft on her skin.

"Hitomi, after we've finished this quest, promise me you'll still visit." Alice said quietly.

"Of course I'll still visit." Hitomi said. "How could I not?"

"I just..." Alice hesitated. "I don't want you to leave, Hitomi. I want to be with you always."

Hitomi felt a chill pass down her spine, and the magic inside of her tugged at the corners of her mind. She tried to ignore it as best as she could. She could tell Alice was hurt. She didn't think she'd seen Alice get this serious before, though she supposed that could be an artifact of them only having known each other for three days. Hitomi was very aware that she was Alice's only really close friend. She had Eve, sure, but their relationship seemed close in a different way, more like they were sisters. It must be scary for her, having finally made a friend but being so sure that it wouldn't last.

"I want that too." she said softly. "When we finish, I want to show you Mitakihara city, and take you shopping in the little stores by the river. You'll meet Sayaka and Madoka and we'll all be the best of friends. I'll take you to a little café and get you some sweet-cakes, and then we'll all go to the park and relax in the sun. Maybe Eve will let you stay with me for a while; I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind. We'll sit and talk about boys and manga and do each others hair. You could get to be a normal girl for a little while." Hitomi sighed as she imagined it. "I'd like that."

"Hitomi..." Alice said. "Will you tell me about your world?"

"Of course." Hitomi said. "What do you want to know?"

-*%*-

Hitomi sighed, putting down her book and looking at her bare walls tiredly. She had no idea what time it was anymore. Alice had left hours ago, and they had spent hours talking, so she figured it must be getting late again. She could really use a wall clock. That, and perhaps some decoration.

She shook her head. No, she didn't need that. She wasn't planing on making a habit of staying in this room for very long, though if she kept getting injured like this, she might reconsider her stance. After all, it had only been three days. There were still fifty-three left. Plenty of time to get injured again.

Hitomi shook her head. There was no use pretending things weren't bad, but there was equally little use worrying over them or making them seem worse then they really were. She had been injured, but she was recovering. She flexed the toes on her right leg and they moved when she wanted them to. Hitomi had to give her credit, Silvia's potions were doing a wonderful job. Her leg no longer looked like a zombie, she was beginning to regain feeling in her foot, and the swelling was going away slowly but steadily. All this, and it had taken less than a day and never hurt more than a bruise.

She looked down at the book she was reading. It wasn't very good, to be honest. She was pretty sure it was about a demoness living in modern day New York, but she hadn't really payed much attention to the plot. Still, Eve had apparently thought she would like it, and she didn't have anything better to do. She opened it, reading the text slowly, trying to let herself escape into the world of the page. The obvious inexperience of the author wasn't helping.

Was it that, though? Or had she just found a better world to escape into? After all, that was what she had done, in its most basic essence. She'd left her world for one of fantasy by choice, after being given as many chances to turn back as was reasonable. Perhaps she couldn't enjoy this book, or any other work of fiction, for all the lies it told. Being a hero was much harder, and much slower, then they made it seem. She wouldn't imagine a book would give fifty pages to her adventure up to now, fifty pages to capture the hours and hours of wonder, of boredom, of friendship, of pain. It wouldn't even mention a time like this, or delegate it a few paragraphs at most; it was boring to read about a character laying in a bed for hours. _"Hitomi slept through most of the three days, her leg healing slowly. Her friends came to visit her from time to time, but she spent most of her time awake staring at the ceiling contemplating the ridiculous nature of fictional narratives." _Something like that. That was why heroes never got colds or the flu, why they never were 'just a little off that day'. Fiction was neater than real life, and now that she was living a fantasy for real, she couldn't see past the obvious falseness of it all. It felt almost mocking.

Hitomi put the novel down, staring up at the ceiling. She wondered briefly where Silvia was, but let it slide from her mind. It most likely hadn't been as long as it felt like. She was sure she'd be here soon enough with more potions for her to drink.

She tried to think of something interesting to occupy her time, but ended up just staring skywards listlessly for about eight minutes. Eventually, she heard a knock on the side of her door. Derick was standing there, holding a vial filled with purple liquid and a bulb of water, a look of smug but caring mirth on his face. Hitomi sighed.

"Come on in." she said, letting Derick through the barrier. "I see you've brought me presents."

"Silvia told me not to let you complain too much." Derick warned, handing Hitomi the vial.

"And what did you say?" Hitomi asked, steeling herself to drink the fluid as quickly as she could.

"I said Hitomi is much to grown up to complain, and that she was being crotchety." Derick said, and Hitomi nearly coughed up the liquid in surprise.

"Really?" Hitomi asked after swallowing the liquid with a final disgusted shake of her head. "I wouldn't have expected..." Hitomi coughed violently for a second. "have expected..." she coughed loudly again, this time for nearly ten seconds. "Water." she said flatly. "Need water."

Derick handed her the bulb, and Hitomi cleared her throat with a few strong gulps. While she drank, he spoke to her. "I think we might have gotten off on the wrong foot yesterday. I was understandably under a bit of stress, with a battle happening in only a few hours and all, and I took a little bit of that out on you. I shouldn't have. I'm sorry." he paused. "I am only seventeen, after all. Barely four years older than you. I was... scared, really, and I tried to compensate by acting tough. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable."

"No, it's okay." Hitomi said. "I get it."

Silence fell between the two of them. Derick shifted uncomfortably on his feet for a moment, before settling down and giving Hitomi a level look. "Hitomi, do you like soft-drinks?" he asked suddenly.

"Um... yes." Hitomi said. "Though I doubt I'd recognize anything your civilization puts out."

"Here." he handed a can to Hitomi, who took it, popping the top and taking a sip. It tasted sort of like root beer, but not quite as strong and a little sweeter. She thought it was generally okay. "Sorry. I'm bad at this conversation thing." Derick said, taking a can for himself, seeming to enjoy it greatly.

"Well..." Hitomi looked around, thinking. "You seem to have a knack for doing fire magic. Or is it fire technology?" she shook her head. "Never mind. You're basically a pyromancer one way or another. Any reason why?"

"Uh... It seemed cool?" Derick said, laughing softly. "I always thought being able to control fire was a fun concept. I guess I just like doing it. As a bonus, it's pretty flashy on it's own, so it's more efficient in terms of joules of energy in to impressive display out." he tapped his spell book. "Fusion power is great and all, but it's not unlimited."

"Technology so advanced it seems like magic." Hitomi mused. "You must have an interesting life. I'd imagine you have everything you could ever want at your fingertips."

"In a way, yes. But, again, the technology is so advanced it's basically magic. I can't hope to understand it, nor can most of the people I know. My civilization is in a slow decline as things break and no one can fix them." he sighed. "We all understand that. It's not like we're not fully aware that all of our stuff works off of scientific principles, it's just that they're simply too complex for us to grasp. Still, we're type II. It takes a long time for a type II to decline, on the order of tens or hundreds of thousands of years. I still hold out hope that we'll figure things out again before the fusion cores give out."

"Oh." Hitomi said. "That's kind of sad, actually."

"In a way." Derick said. "But in a way, it gives us something to reach for. If we did it once, we can do it again." he sighed. "But I guess that's part of the reason I'm here. I mean, my life was a comfortable world that I knew was decaying slowly and couldn't do a thing about. I take my tests and a computer tells me what I'm going to be happiest doing for the rest of my life, and that's what I do. Everything is preplanned and perfect, and if you just keep your head down and don't think too hard about the fact that each time you use one of the devices you bring civilization one step closer to losing use of it forever, everything goes fine. Party hard and enjoy the fruits of a type II without doing any of the work for as long as it lasts. Then, suddenly, this hot girl with wings and a killer sword shows up and tells me I can help save her world. Some dark evil that I can help beat up? Now, that's a problem I can deal with. A very clear, immediate goal I can work towards." he laughed. "I was basically a god of my own domain, and yet I needed to step down and get my hands dirty to actually have any real agency in my life. Funny, isn't it?"

"No, not really. That sounds reasonable to me, actually." Hitomi said. "Some people simply can't be happy unless they're forging their own way. That's why we have explorers, inventors, leaders." Hitomi gave him a smile. "You were a frustrated hero without anything to fight. Of course you leaped at the opportunity to save a world."

"I guess you're right." Derick said. "If only all problems could be solved through killing a villain. It's so much simpler when your demons don't require advanced mathematics and a millennium of research to defeat." he paused. "But enough about me. Why are you here? You have to have some reason, right? From what I've seen and heard, your civilization is poised to hit type I sometime in the next one to two hundred years. There's plenty of adventure to be had on a world just advanced enough to begin to understand the big questions but too primitive to control them, so it's not that."

"My reason?" Hitomi said questioningly. "Well, this girl with wings started talking in my head, and I found out very quickly that the world I thought I knew wasn't quite as secure as I believed. If there are friendly magical girls, there are magical evils too; it only took them about another fifteen minutes to show up. Someone has to be able to fight the creatures of the night so that the rest of the world can keep on existing in the light, and right now, I'm the only candidate that I know of. I couldn't just ignore it, and this seemed like the best way for me to get a crash course in protecting the world."

"Here to protect those you care about." Derick nodded. "A far nobler goal than being here to feel useful, if I do say so myself."

"Hey, I think Fox is here just because he likes fighting." Hitomi said. "You're not in last place, that's for sure."

"Heh, fair enough." Derick sighed, finishing his drink. "Besides, it's not a contest. And motives change. I would have left here plenty of times before now if it weren't for Eve and Max. Now, those two I could see myself dying for. Max especially."

"Yeah." Hitomi closed her eyes briefly, Alice's face flashing in her mind for a moment before she opened them again. "I understand that, believe me."

"So, are you liking the book?" Derick said, pointing to the novel by Hitomi's bed after a sufficiently long silence had passed between them. She made a face.

"Not really. It's not bad, I guess, but it's kind of hard to get into a fantasy novel when your life has basically become one. It just sort of feels... shallow, in a way."

"Really?" Derick said. "I always liked them for that reason. They're simpler than real life. Even the most complex and thought provoking stories need to follow the conservation of detail, so they always let you look at an event in it's entirety, from start to finish. They're little toys that have the added bonus of being able to bring people to life if they're done right."

"I guess." Hitomi said. "Well, it's not very well written either."

"Hey, if you don't like it, you don't like it." he took the book back. "I'll tell Eve. We'll find you something else to read." he paused. "In the meantime, do you want to watch a video?"

"You have videos?" Hitomi said. "I would have thought you'd have passed that a long time ago."

"We still have graphite pencils, Hitomi. Just because something new comes along don't mean everything that came before it is lost, not if you do it right." Derick winked. "Do you like action-adventure? I pretty much only have action-adventure."

"Um..." Hitomi thought for a moment. "Anything with strong character focus?"

"A character-focused action-adventure story?" he scratched his chin for a moment. "There aren't too many of those, but I think I might have a couple. Let me see..."

-*%*-

"Yeah!" Hitomi cheered, watching the hero slowly get back onto his feet, despite the wounds he had. Derick had introduced her to a four movie series which she was really getting into. It was very shallow, yes, but it was fun, and it took her mind off of the otherwise empty day she would have faced. She'd watched the first one with Derick, and then caught the second one on her own before falling to sleep with the help of another one of Silvia's potions. Now she was two-thirds through the fourth, and she almost didn't want it to end.

_"You can't stop the truth, Arcor!"_ The hero yelled, and Hitomi giggled. _"You think you've won, but you just can't see it, can you? Every time you use-"_

The dialog cut out suddenly, and for a second Hitomi was afraid that Derick's device might have busted. It flickered back on, paused. Hitomi looked around, seeing Eve at the door with a small silver controller in her hand.

"I see you're having fun." Eve said. Her tone was casual, but Hitomi still noticed her tapping her fingers slowly on the door-frame, fidgeting. "How are you feeling?"

"Much better now." Hitomi said. "I have full movement in my foot, and my leg's gone back to the right size finally. Silvia says that I'll be up and about in another twenty-four hours, give or take a few." she smiled softly at Eve. "I'm going to be fine, Eve. You don't need to be so worried."

"I know." Eve said, sighing. "You're a tough little girl, Hitomi. But I see you laying there, and all I can think is how I ripped you from your comfortable life and got you so hurt that you managed to black out for a few seconds during combat from only the pain, within sixty hours of meeting you to boot. It's just not reasonable to drag a thirteen year old into this. The only reason I let Alice take part is I can't get rid of her, and I've done my best to keep her as far from the conflict as I can, though you saw how well that worked. I should have turned away as soon as I figured out how young you were."

"No." Hitomi shook her head. "Eve, it's unreasonable for an eighteen year old to have to lead a group of adventurers as the last chance to save a world. You're the one who got the impossible responsibilities trusted on you." Hitomi gave her a smile. "You give yourself too much credit. You didn't rip me from my comfortable life, Eve. I came here because I wanted to. Sure, you might have caused the inciting incident for it, but you never forced me to do anything. I chose this. Stop feeling personally responsible for getting me into this."

"It's not just that." Eve said, beginning to pace. "I'm the leader. It's my responsibility to keep my team safe. And I clearly failed to do that." Hitomi shook her head. For whatever reason, Eve seemed to want to think ill of her self. Internally, Hitomi sighed. Eve wasn't the type to do well with kind words of encouragement, so she'd have to take a harsher route to snap her out.

"No, as a leader, it's your responsibility to use your resources to achieve the goal of your group, which you managed without a hitch." Hitomi said flatly. "We got that scroll thing that will point us to our next target. We won. If you want to feel bad about this so strongly, feel bad because your friend got hurt, not because you messed up. Self pity will get you nowhere."

Eve looked at Hitomi for a moment, a smile slowly crossing her lips. "You know, you're really a very intelligent little girl, Hitomi. You're right. I knew you were right already, but self pity is just too easy until someone else points it out. I think I needed that." she gave Hitomi a kind look. "Get well, Hitomi."

"I will." Hitomi said. Eve walked off, her footsteps more regular now, her movements more natural. Hitomi watched her go, sighing happily as she disappeared down the hall. Thirty seconds passed, and her soft smile slowly turned into a frown.

"She forgot to turn the movie back on." Hitomi said flatly, sighing and laying down on the cot. "Great."

-*%*-

"Just another few hours, Hitomi." Silvia said, shaking her head as Hitomi pouted at her. "Two, three at most. You're almost done. It would be stupid to mess something up now."

"Yeah, but school starts in twenty-five minutes!" Hitomi said, pleading. "And you said that I don't need any more of the potions. Can't I just get crutches or something?" Hitomi put her hands together, giving Silvia the saddest look she could manage. "I've already missed two days, and everyone is probably worried about me."

Silvia shook her head slowly, rolling her eyes. "Fine. You can go back, but be careful! Don't do anything strenuous today no matter what, do you hear?" she sighed. "You'll be fine, most likely, but I'm still concerned at how quickly you recovered. Did Alice drop some kind of healing magic on you too?"

"No, though I think she said something about the room healing me earlier. That might have been it." Hitomi mused, sitting up and stretching her right leg back and forth slowly. It was still obvious that she had injured it, but it was working fine now, and it seemed to hold her weight as Hitomi carefully tested it.

"Well, if you can stand, you can walk, I guess." Silvia said. "Just make sure not to put too much strain on it. The bones should be set by now, but any little fracture you put in it while it's still healing could end up causing you problems later."

"I know." Hitomi said. "I'll be careful, I promise."

"Fine, fine." Silvia waved her off. "Just get, before I change my mind."

"Thank you very much!" Hitomi said, bowing to Silvia briefly before running out of the room.

"Hey! That's not being careful!" Silvia yelled. "And let me out of the damn room before you leave!"

Hitomi dropped her barrier with a flick of her wrist, holding it open for twenty seconds as she ran down the stairs and into the main hallway, turning quickly to the far door and entering the foyer. She took four quick steps and slammed into Eve, who was suitably startled by her.

"What-" she started, then shook her head as she made out the detail of Hitomi's face in the dim light. "Hitomi? I thought you'd still be in bed."

"Sorry for running into you." Hitomi said quickly, giving her a smile. "Silvia said it was okay for me to go to school now." Hitomi said. "I've only got about twenty-three minutes to get there before I'm late, so I'm in a rush."

"Hey, I'll walk you there." Alice said, stepping forward from the darkness. Hitomi blinked.

"Oh, have I interrupted something?" she asked quietly. "I'm sorry."

"No, nothing important." Eve assured her. "Alice and I were just talking." she smiled at Hitomi. "You two get to class now, okay? Alice, I'm counting on you to get Hitomi there on time."

"Will do!" Alice said, grinning and taking Hitomi's arm. "We'll make it there for sure."

"Don't hurt yourselves!" Eve said as the two girls giggled out of the castle, running to the wooden platforms.

"Are you okay to run?" Alice said, grinning.

"As far as I know." Hitomi said.

Alice let go of Hitomi's hand, laughing and running circles around her as they ascended. Hitomi shook her head. "Is that some kind of witch power I can learn?" she asked, out of breath. "Because you always seem to have so much more energy then I do."

"Nah, I just run a lot. You get used to it." Alice said. "Now, that gate-stone was around here somewhere..."

Alice looked around the edge of the woods for a minute, finding the gate-stone with little trouble. "Hey." she said to Hitomi. "You know, I'm really glad-"

There was a brief flash of light and a slight feeling of the ground shifting below them, and the two girls found themselves back in the cityscape.

"-you're okay." Alice finished. "I like seeing you smile again."

"Of course I'm okay!" Hitomi said. "It was just an injury."

"Yeah, but you've been injured half the time I've know you for now." Alice said. "With my hospital visit, nearly three quarters of all the time we've spent together has been in and out of medical care."

"I'm sure we'll have time for things now." Hitomi said. "Eve says we're two weeks ahead of schedule, right? That has to count for something."

"Yeah..." Alice said quietly, then shook her head, gasping. "Oh, time limit, right! Off we go!" she pulled Hitomi's hand, leading her through the streets. "Let's see... two minutes from the castle to the gate-stone, six from the gate-stone to the world gate, five to your house, two to grab your stuff, and five back to the school..." Alice grinned. "It's a close margin, but I think we'll make it."

The two girls made it to the world gate without trouble, stepping through and quickly arriving in the middle-school grounds. Hitomi could already see the early students beginning to show up.

"Wow, there's a whole swarm of you!" Alice said in awe. "Little anime schoolgirls and little anime schoolboys in their little uniforms. You even have the weird hair color and everything!"

"Weird..." Hitomi said, looking for a second at her smooth, jade green hair. What was weird about that?

"Speaking of which, you have to show me how to dye my hair like yours." Alice continued, starting to pull Hitomi towards the streets. "Maybe when you get out of school?"

"Dye?" Hitomi said, not really paying attention to Alice's words as she took the lead, hurriedly walking to her house. "No, I'm a natural green, actually, though you're not the first to say that. People don't tend to believe me. They say it's to vibrant for natural coloring, but..." she trailed off as she looked to Alice's shocked face. "What?"

"You're a... natural green?" Alice said, blinking slowly. "You're telling me that in your world, anime hair colors are _natural_?"

"Is this the time?" Hitomi said, pulling Alice across the street. She snapped out of her surprise and followed Hitomi quickly.

"Sorry. You're right, we don't have much time left." Alice said. "Actually... now that I think about it, how are we going to avoid your parents? If they catch us, there will be questions about your extended disappearance, I'm sure."

"It's Wednesday morning, about 8:10ish." Hitomi said. "They'll most likely be at work by now. We should be fine."

They rounded the corner of the street, walking quickly down past a row of luxurious modern buildings. Eventually, they stopped outside of a large six story building, ornately built on the edge of the lane. It was larger then the surrounding buildings, and more stately, in a quiet pleasing manor. Alice's eyes went wide again.

"You can't be serious." she said flatly as Hitomi took her house-key from her pocket and opened the door. "This can't possibly be your house."

"Of course not. It's my parents house." Hitomi said. "Well, one of them, anyway. I'm a minor, and can't own houses just yet."

Alice didn't say anything, hesitating briefly before following Hitomi inside. Hitomi heard her gasp as she entered the building, looking around at the elegant and affluent interior. She seemed stunned for a moment, her mouth hanging slightly open. Hitomi snapped her fingers, trying to get Alice's attention, but she didn't snap out of it.

"Oop!" there was a startled squeak, and Hitomi turned to see a young maid in the doorway, her basket of clothes dropping to the ground as she regarded Alice. "Who..." she started, then saw Hitomi, and squeaked again. "Young mistress Hitomi!" she said. "We've been worried sick since you've been gone! Where have you been?"

Alice turned to Hitomi slowly, a look somewhere between incredulous and exasperated clear on her features. "Young mistress?" she said, her pupils beginning to shrink.

"Not now." Hitomi said, turning to go up the stairs. "I'm going to school, and no one can stop me. I refuse to let monsters, magic, maids, misunderstandings or medical conditions get in my way. I'm doing this. Alice, I'm sorry, but you can no longer aid me on this quest." she looked fiercely at Alice. "Here is where we must part ways."

"Hitomi..." Alice murmured in a noncommittal, uncomprehending manor as Hitomi walked quickly to the stairs and up to her room. It was on the fifth floor, taking nearly half of her allotted time to simply reach. Fortunately, it seemed her normal fastidiousness had payed off, as she found her bag already packed. It was a shame that she wouldn't have time for breakfast, or to explain things to Alice, or prepare an excuse for the school, or... well, there were a lot of things she would have to cut. But somehow Hitomi knew that she needed this regardless, needed a little return to normalcy even if it was only for a couple hours. If she was going to be putting her life on the line for a magical world, she was damn well entitled to a coping mechanism.

She changed into her school uniform in seconds, barely managing to get the garment physically on in her hurry. Grabbing her bag, Hitomi slung it over her shoulder and rushed down the steps, quickly casting a feather-fall spell on herself and leaping down flight by flight. She sighed, exasperated to find Alice still in her foyer.

"Alice, you can't stay here without introduction, and you can't go to class with me. Come on. I'll show you around later, okay?" she grabbed Alice's hand, dragging her from the house. Alice resisted for a moment, then sighed and went with Hitomi.

"You didn't say that you were the richest girl in the world." Alice grumbled. Hitomi shook her head.

"That's because I'm not. Sure, we've got a few tens of billions of yen, but..." Hitomi trailed off, realizing the ridiculousness of her statement. She sighed. "I don't let it get to me. I don't consider it a very large part of who I am, so it usually just doesn't come up."

"Your house is bigger than our castle." Alice said flatly.

"Yeah, but your castle has magic." Hitomi countered.

"Why do you attend a normal public school?" Alice asked. "I would have thought you'd get personal tutors or something." she stiffened. "To go along with your maids and butler."

"My family is very new money." Hitomi said. "My father and his partners made their fortune on the electronics market in the late 90's and early 2000's, when the field was open enough for innovators to make a splash and full enough to make a ton of money in no time. The Shizuki fortune isn't quite twenty years old yet. Both of my parents got a public education and have a very high opinion of the Japanese public education system. Hence," she waved at her uniform, "I attend a public school."

"I... see." Alice said, obviously not comprehending. Hitomi sighed.

"Look, it's not important." Hitomi said as they drew into the school. "Alice, to avoid any trouble, I'd like it if Sayaka and Madoka didn't see you. We'll talk later, okay?"

"Okay, okay." Alice said. "You're just full of surprises, Hitomi. Anything else you want to tell me about yourself that you haven't said because 'no one asked'?"

"Well, I'm a half-cyborg from another planet..." Hitomi started, and Alice slapped her lightly on the back of the head.

"Seriously!" Alice said, but she was smiling again, so Hitomi figured she'd accomplished what she needed. "You've thrown everything off, again!" Alice shook her head. "First, I thought you were from a magical world anime, because, you know, the whole traveling to a magical world thing. Then you turn out to be badass, and so it changes to magical girl. Now, I find out you're the rich girl in a maid anime! I don't know what genre you fall into any more!"

"Real life is rarely neat enough to fall into a single category." Hitomi said. "For instance, I'm thirteen, and taking on the real world for the first time. So it's also slice of life, and coming of age, and possibly middle-school drama depending on where the focus is."

"Well, as long as we avoid harem, I think we can deal with it." Alice said, and Hitomi giggled. "But if it turns out you're also in love with a boy, who has other girls chasing him too, but everyone knows that you and him really have the strongest bond, I am going to kick you out of the spectrum."

"Can you do that?" Hitomi asked.

"Yes. I can do whatever I please with the contract, remember?" Alice said, and Hitomi felt a shiver pass over her. "Including to '_dissolve the contract without the consent of the contractee at any time for any reason'_. I think that was in the first section."

"Please don't do that." Hitomi said meekly. For whatever reason, the fight had just gone out of her. As soon as Alice had begun to quote the contract, she'd felt a terrifying numbness overcome her senses, and she knew that she couldn't resist it without serious effort. "I want to stay in your spectrum, Alice. Don't kick me out." Hitomi felt another shudder pass through her. She knew that she shouldn't be so shaken by this, but fear was spreading through her and chilling her thoughts, clouding her mind and making it hard to think rationally. "I'll do anything. Just, please..." she said, even quieter.

"Hitomi?" Alice said, concerned. "Snap out of it. I was joking." she laughed awkwardly, obviously uncomfortable with the situation. Hitomi felt the hold on her shatter, leaving behind no trace except the terrible memory of the experience. "I would never kick you from the spectrum. You know that."

Hitomi took a shuttering breath. "Yeah." she said quietly. "Yeah, I know."

There was a trill of a bell, and Hitomi's eyes went wide. "That's the warning bell!" she yelled. "I have to be in my classroom in three minutes! Sorry, Alice, I have to run!"

"Go!" Alice yelled after her, seemingly glad for the interruption to what would have otherwise been a very awkward situation. Hitomi ran to the doors of the school, throwing them open and entering the building as quickly as she could. She tried to force her mind away from the events of the past three minutes. For the next few hours, she could afford to just be a normal girl again.

-*%*-

"... so, with my leg as injured as it was, it took me longer to get to school then I thought it would. Still, I made it on time, technically, so I think it went well all things considered." Hitomi said, finishing her explanation of absence to Madoka and Sayaka. In a way, she was glad that she'd left before Silvia's potions had finished their work, otherwise she'd have no physical evidence to back up her story. She looked to the other two girls, examining their faces for any distrust. Her story was a bit far fetched, to say the least, so she was expecting at least some questions.

"I'm so sorry, Hitomi." Madoka said softly. "Are you sure you're alright now?"

"You know, I wish I had stories like that." Sayaka said. "Your life seems so interesting sometimes, Hitomi." she grinned. "Though that must have hurt. You should have told us sooner! I would have totally visited you."

"You don't think the story is suspicious?" Hitomi asked, before putting a hand over her mouth. Sayaka laughed.

"What, getting your leg smashed in a faulty elevator which did serious enough damage for you to miss two days but not serious enough to go to the hospital?" Sayaka said, shaking her head. "Quite frankly, if anyone else had said it, I'd have laughed at them." she looked Hitomi in the eyes, smiling. "But you're one of the most forward and honest people I know, Hitomi. If you say that's what happened, then that's what happened."

Madoka nodded. "We trust you, Hitomi. If no one else believes you, we will. That's what friends do."

_Just fifty-one more days. Just fifty-one more days. Just fifty-one more days..._

"Thank you." Hitomi said. "That really means a lot to me. I'd hope that we would never keep secrets from each other. I care about you two too much to lie to you." every word felt like poison in her mouth, and she nearly choked on her own carefully worded deceit.

"Of course." Sayaka said. "We're best friends! Nothing should be hidden between us." She gave Hitomi a pointed look, and Hitomi nearly blushed. _Right. As far as she knows, the two of us are hiding Alice from Madoka._

"I don't know." Madoka said quietly. "I mean, if I knew something that could hurt you, I might try to keep you safe by not telling." she blushed. "I guess it would depend on the situation, mainly."

Hitomi felt her heart jump a beat, but she did her best to maintain her composure. "I mean... I guess, if it was dangerous enough..."

"I'd tell you all in a heartbeat." Sayaka said. "I know that you'd rather help if you could, and I also know that we're stronger together."

Hitomi felt like she had had a dagger of ice plunged through her heart. Sayaka paused, gave Hitomi a sidelong glance, then sighed. "But I wouldn't tell you something if it would hurt someone else for you to know. If there was someone else I needed to protect, I couldn't give them up just because we're all friends."

There was a pause, none of the girls seeming to have any further to say on the subject. An awkward silence began to spread between them, and Hitomi began to cast her eyes around in an attempt to find something to talk about.

"So..." Madoka said after while, trying to defuse the tension in the air that none of the girls fully understood the reason for. "Has anyone heard anything about the new transfer student?"

"New transfer student?" Hitomi asked, interested in spite of herself. "Have they arrived?"

"No, they'll be transferring in on the 25th." Madoka said, shaking her head. "She had a heart problem, apparently, so as the classes nurse's aid I was informed about her sooner then the rest of you."

"Well, that's cool." Sayaka said, putting her arms behind her head and ginning. "No, sorry, I haven't heard anything about that."

"These things are better left to class introductions anyway." Hitomi said. "I wonder what she'll be like?"

"Perhaps we can become friends!" Madoka said, and Sayaka laughed.

"That's what you say about nearly every new person you meet, Madoka." Sayaka said. "Not everyone in the world is going to become friends with you." she grinned at the other two girls. "Besides, I have the two best friends on earth anyway. Why do I need more?"

"That doesn't make it any less true." Madoka said, obviously embarrassed.

"I agree." Hitomi said, giving Madoka an encouraging look. "Though it's unreasonable to expect it every time, there's no reason not to want to make as many friends as you can."

"Well, -" Sayaka started, but the bell for classes rung, and she shook her head. "It's not important." she smiled at Hitomi and Madoka in turn. "Now that Hitomi's recovered, why don't we celebrate tonight? Get a nice snack after school, maybe take a look through some of the shops?"

"Why do I have the feeling I'll be paying for this?" Hitomi said, grinning back at the other two. As much as she hated to admit it, she really missed this. Sayaka just laughed, running back into the school as classes began again, Hitomi and Madoka following.

-*%*-

"Eve, we need to talk." Hitomi said, confronting a surprised Eve in the doorway to the main hall. She blinked twice, seemingly unable to formulate a response.

"What... about?" Eve asked hesitantly, looking at Hitomi with minor concern.

"You said that you'd 'taken care' of the spy problem. What happened there, and why hasn't anyone told me?"

"Oh." Eve said, shaking her head. "I could have sworn I already told you..." she trailed off. "Never mind. I'm so sorry about this, Hitomi. I didn't mean to keep you in the dark. It must have slipped my mind." she paused. "The spy thing? Well, there wasn't one. No one was spying for the enemy. One of us is, however, bugged. That's how they got instant responses. There was no way they could have prepared under such short notice unless they had a live stream."

"Is?" Hitomi said. "Wait, so we're..."

"Yeah." Eve said. "Based off some clever logic, I've figured out that it has to be either Silvia, Lilly, or Fox, but I can't determine who it is, or how exactly they've been bugged. Still, hey, at least we don't have to worry about people betraying us."

"I'm not sure that fills me with as much confidence as you seem to think it should." Hitomi said slowly.

"That's a little bit of what this time is about, in any case." Eve said. "We're taking another six days easy before we make our next move. I'm sure we'll find it by then."

"How do you bug a person?" Hitomi asked, then shook her head. "Wait, no, magic. Right."

"It makes the damn thing tricky to find, unfortunately." Eve says. "Though I'm pretty sure they only have audio, so that's something good. If push comes to shove, we'll use multimedia presentations." she patted Hitomi on the head. "But that's not for you to worry about. Go and have fun for the next week. You've been gifted with the opportunity to not need sleep without increasing your workload. I'm sure Alice will be delighted to spend the time with you."

"I'm sure she will..." Hitomi said, a little apprehension creeping into her tone subconsciously. Eve cocked her head, her eyes furrowing.

"Has something happened between you and Alice?" Eve said. "I can tell you're worried about something."

"No, nothing has happened, really." Hitomi said, hesitating. "It's just that... well... and I know she's not trying to, but..." Hitomi looked down. Eve's eyes widened.

"Has she been forcing you to do things?" she said sternly. "If she has, trust me, I'll get it to stop."

"No, no!" Hitomi said, grabbing Eve's arm. "Nothing like that. She just... makes me uncomfortable from time to time. She'll say something off the cuff, make some joke about the contract or my magic, and I'll feel a hole beginning to grow in my chest." Hitomi laughed darkly. "Things as simple as keeping my mouth shut when she asks me questions has become a terrible battle of will. And I know she's not trying to do it, but..." Hitomi sighed.

Eve paused, looking at Hitomi carefully, seemingly hesitant to speak again. She sighed after a while, shaking her head slowly. "I'm sorry, there really isn't anything I can do about that." Eve said. "Encounters with your spectrum leader are not encounters of equals, whether they try to exert their power or not. The only thing I can suggest is talking to Alice about it. If she knew how much it affected you, I'm sure she'd make as much of an effort to avoid those triggers as she could."

"Your probably right." Hitomi said. "I really just don't want her to feel bad about it."

"Do you think she'll feel worse if you tell her that she's been tormenting her friend for five days or when she finds out in five years on her own that she's been doing it the whole time?" Eve said.

Hitomi didn't say anything. Eve patted Hitomi's head again. "In either case, it's something that I'm fully confident that you can solve on your own. I've given you my bit, but I'm not your parent. Unless we're in combat, I'm not going to tell you what to do."

Hitomi nodded. "Thanks for your advice, Eve."

"Well, that's what friends are for." Eve said. "Helping each other when they need it, working together on things, and supporting each other no matter what." she gave Hitomi a raised eyebrow. "I consider you my friend, Hitomi, and that is a very small subset of people for me, small enough that I can count it on my fingers. Don't hesitate to ask me things. The worse that could happen is I say nothing."

Hitomi nodded. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Except for homework." Eve said quickly. "I don't do homework."

Hitomi laughed softly. "I'll keep that in mind, too." she said, bowing lightly to Eve. "Sorry to have disturbed you, and thank you for the information!"

"You don't have to apologize!" Eve said, shaking her head as Hitomi ran out of the room.

-*%*-

Hitomi sighed, looking up to the blackboard to make sure she had copied her notes correctly. The topics they were going over today were very advanced, and Hitomi was having considerable difficulty keeping up. Somehow, she suspected that they had been forwarded the review for second-year highschoolers, not second-year middleschoolers, but she doubted the teacher would notice. She certainly wasn't talking about anything related to the class; as always, it seemed that some detail of her love life had managed to sneak its way into the classroom. Hitomi always did her best to ignore her when she went off on tangents like this. It gave her time to catch up on her notes.

There was a brief pause in the normal classroom chatter, and the teacher seemed to be startled out of her normal half-daze, turning to the class and addressing them in what Hitomi figured was likely the most direct and formal manor she had done so for at least a week.. "Now that that's out of the way, let's welcome our new transfer student!" Hitomi turned her head, looking out at the hallway beyond, watching the silhouette of a young girl pass to the door and pause briefly outside. "Please come in, Miss Akemi!"

The door swung open, and Hitomi gasped. The girl standing there had long black hair, with deep purple eyes and a completely neutral expression on her face. She looked very pretty, her steps stunningly graceful, and seemed to have an almost intangible air of cool, collected reason about her. But that wasn't why Hitomi gasped. She wasn't paying that much attention to her physical appearance at all. A dark aura of magic came off the girl in wisps, and Hitomi shivered. It was exactly the same signature that she had picked up in Alice's hospital room. Whatever this girl was, it was clearly not human.

Miss Akemi walked to the front of the classroom, turning to face the students. She began her introduction, but Hitomi wasn't really listening, still trying to process the essence she detected, unsure of what to do. Was it best to simply watch and see what happened? Just because a magic felt 'dark' did not mean that it was evil; Hitomi herself was a witch who used literal blood magic, and she was fairly certain that that would be considered 'dark' magic in most places. She could be friendly or helpful. There was no way to tell. And, supposing she wasn't nice, watching for what she did while undetected would give Hitomi the advantage if they came to blows. Of course, if she was malignant, the longer Hitomi left her alone the more she would be able to do without anything to stand in her way. There didn't seem to be a good option. Hitomi hadn't thought she'd need to come to a decision like this so soon. She needed time to think.

Out of the corner of her eye, Hitomi saw Madoka flinch suddenly. Her eyes darted quickly between miss Akemi and Madoka. A cold dread began to set in her stomach. Akemi's eyes never flickered from Madoka the entire time Hitomi watched. She seemed to be surveying her very intently.

Then, without warning, miss Akemi turned to the board and began to write carefully on it, breaking her gaze and turning her attention to her task. Hitomi continued to eye her suspiciously, but began to calm down. Madoka, with her bright pink hair and childlike features, was a person of interest in the group. There wasn't necessarily any intent behind the stare. She should give this person, whatever she was, the benefit of the doubt.

Eventually, the class settled down, and Akemi took her seat silently at the front of the room. From her position two desks behind, Hitomi had a hard time keeping track of her movements. Eventually, she gave up and went back to studying. If she hadn't done anything noticeable yet, she most likely wouldn't for a little while longer. There was not point in putting up an act if you only planed on keeping it for seven minutes, after all. Still, Hitomi found it very challenging to pay attention in light of her presence, though the saturation of her aura seemed to be declining with time.

Eventually, the class broke for lunch. Hitomi went over to Madoka's desk, Sayaka joining them quickly. Sayaka seemed excited, sitting down on the empty desk next to Madoka, grinning. Hitomi stood respectfully to the side, careful to keep Madoka and Sayaka in her peripheral vision at all times while pretending to be interested in examining miss Akemi. Their expressions would be much more informative for figuring out what was going on then staring at the back of Akemi's head, but she had to be careful not to seem too interested, or she might alert the girl on accident.

"She has a mysterious air to her, doesn't she?" Hitomi asked calmly, doing her best to seem appropriately engaged. A question that vague should, hopefully, not draw suspicion, but would open the door for the others to begin revealing their observations about her.

For a second, Hitomi felt almost dirty. These were her friends, she shouldn't be using them as unwitting informants! They deserved more then that from her. She began to waver, but with an effort of will Hitomi forced herself to stay clam inside. She was only doing this in order to protect them.

"Hey, Madoka, do you know that girl?" Sayaka said suddenly, and Hitomi listened in as well as she could while still seeming distracted. "Maybe it was just me, but it seemed like she was glaring at you earlier."

"Well... uh..." Madoka said, beginning to blush slightly. Hitomi nearly blinked in surprise. This was a highly unexpected response, to say the least. She was about to press her on this point when she noted Akemi standing up and tuning towards them.

"I'll ask the Nurse's Aid to take me." Akemi said, and Hitomi's full attention switched to her. She walked over to the three of them slowly, her attention locked on Madoka throughout her approach. Madoka gasped as she drew near, and Akemi paused about a meter and a half from their group, looking down at Madoka.

"Miss Kaname Madoka." Akemi said flatly, and Hitomi felt a shiver pass down her spine. "You are the Nurse's Aide for this class, are you not?"

Madoka seemed to be slightly stunned, but she recovered quickly. "Huh? Um, well..."

"May I ask you to accompany me?" Akemi asked, and Hitomi felt a panic rise in her chest. Something about the way she phrased that didn't sit with her well. She told herself she was just being paranoid. "To the nurse's office, that is." Akemi clarified.

Hitomi couldn't shake the feeling that there was something sinister about Akemi, even if her request was normal and perfectly valid. She really didn't want to leave Madoka alone with her, if she could help it. Unless she acted right now, it seemed, she wouldn't have much choice.

Hitomi sighed. She'd see how this played out. She had too little to go on right now. That said, she didn't intend to let them go unwatched.

Akemi and Madoka left the classroom, and Hitomi gave them fifteen seconds before peeking out and following them. It wasn't suspicious for her to be leaving the classroom during break. As long as their walk lasted less than fifteen minutes, everything would go fine.

Hitomi didn't get close enough to hear the conversation they had, keeping just barely close enough that they would be always visible to her but no more. From what she could see, Madoka was becoming increasingly tense as time wore on, beginning to wring her hands after only a few sentences had been exchanged. When Akemi took the lead, Hitomi's heart sank again. So, she already knew the way. Her suspicion had been, unfortunately, correct. This sudden sickness was only a pretense to converse with Madoka, for whatever reason.

The two of them paused out on the glass walkway, and Hitomi turned to one of the posters hung just before the entrance, keeping them in view as best she could. A moment passed, and then Akemi turned to face Madoka. She stared at her intently for a brief moment, then began to speak. Hitomi tried to listen in, but the words were too muffled. Suddenly, there was a drop off, and she caught a brief phrase.

"-treasure the life you currently live? Do you consider you friends and family precious?" Akemi said, and Hitomi felt her heart skip a beat. The conversation picked up again, and the rest of their words were lost to the crowd. The two exchanged a few more lines before the noise died down enough again for Hitomi to make out what was being said.

"-if you do, you will lose all of those things." Akemi said flatly, her tone serious and grave. Again, the noise picked back up, but Hitomi had heard more than enough. There was no question about it, this girl had an unhealthy fascination with Madoka. Hitomi clenched her fists.

The two broke apart, Akemi turning around and walking back towards the classroom. Hitomi took in a deep breath, and matched paces with her as she passed. She drew up close to Akemi, who seemed to not notice her until she was only a few decimeters from her. She turned her head to Hitomi slowly, her expression blank.

"You are Shizuki Hitomi, correct?" Akemi said without emotion.

"Yes, I am Shizuki." Hitomi said, smiling at her. "I suppose you felt better on your way over to the nurse?"

Akemi paused. "Yes, thank you." she seemed partly disinterested in Hitomi, turning her head away from her and walking in measured step.

"Well, I'm glad." Hitomi said. "It would be terrible to miss part of your first day here."

"I suppose." she said calmly.

Hitomi leaned in, a smile still on her lips, her voice still filled with cheer. "Hey, can I tell you something?"

"If you feel like it." Akemi said curtly. "I do not find your company annoying, you do not need to be so cautious."

Hitomi leaned in closer. "If you touch miss Kaname, I will kill you." she said sweetly, leaning out again quickly and walking quietly next to her.

At least, that was the plan. Unfortunately, Akemi reacted slightly more intensely to the comment then Hitomi anticipated, stopping abruptly and staring at her in shock. "What do you -" she began, but Hitomi cut her off.

"I don't know who you are." Hitomi smiled coyly. "I don't know _what_ you are. I have only the barest understanding of your ability, and no idea of your plan. But I do know two things, and they're really the only things that matter. The first is that you are far too interested in miss Kaname for your own good. The second is that miss Kaname is my best friend. And I will remove any and all threats to my best friend. As I said, if you touch miss Kaname, I will kill you. I'm not speaking metaphorically. Do I make myself clear?"

Akemi didn't say anything, her eyes searching Hitomi's face with greatly increased interest. After a short while, however, she regained her composure. "This is new." she said flatly. "This never happened before." there was a brief pause as the two girls sized each other up. Eventually, Akemi nodded lightly. "If you truly mean to protect Madoka, Shizuki Hitomi, you have nothing to fear from me. I have the same intention. If it will make you more comfortable, I will avoid unnecessary contact with her during the school day. However, there are things you can not see, things you do not know, which I will not allow to harm her simply because you may wish me to leave her alone. You shall have to trust that we have the same end goal in mind."

"If that's the case, why don't you explain yourself." Hitomi said. "Wouldn't that make you easier to believe?"

"No." Akemi said shortly. "It would not help." she paused, then began to continue back to the classroom. "I would rather not have to kill you, if possible. It would cause Madoka undue stress." she said. "But if you hinder me in protecting her, I will do what I need to to make sure she stays safe."

"I suppose we should both do our best to stay out of each others way, then." Hitomi said curtly. "Though, assuming you are telling the truth, I am glad to have another ally, as unnecessarily antagonistic as they might be."

Akemi didn't acknowledge Hitomi's words, walking silently the rest of the way back to class. Hitomi sighed internally. School just got a whole lot more complicated.

-*%*-

"And she just walked away?" Alice said, shaking her head. "You're right, everything about this person seems suspicious." she paused, then gave Hitomi a large grin. "Are you sure you don't want to take her on? I'd help you, of course. The two of us could totally take her, I'm sure."

The two of them were sitting on Hitomi's bed, Alice's eyes still periodically examining her room. Hitomi had rarely felt so self conscious about her fairly lavish decorations, giving the silk sheets, the expensive jewelery, and various other accouterments of wealth scattered around her room dirty looks. Alice still hadn't quite gotten over exactly how much money the Shizuki family had, and she'd been acting strangely for nearly an hour. Hitomi was glad she'd begun to calm down, even if it had taken the thought of a fight to do so.

"No, no, I don't think that's a good idea." Hitomi sighed. "She had a air of collected reason about her. Like she knew exactly what she was doing. I wouldn't want to confront her if I don't have to."

"Well, if you ever do have to, I'll be there with you." Alice said. She smiled at Hitomi. "This is why you wanted me to teach you how to place wards, isn't it."

Hitomi blushed. "Maybe." she sighed. "I just don't like the idea of this Akemi attacking Madoka or Sayaka while I'm not around. If I could put some protection on them, even just a light deterrent, it would make me feel better."

"Wards are horrifically complex. I'd expect even a basic ward might take you, say, a good week to learn at your level." Alice said, giving Hitomi a reassuring look as her face fell. "But there is something we can do, if you're willing to take a bit of risk."

"What?" Hitomi said. "I'll take anything you can give me."

"I can teach you some proximity spells." Alice said. "Put the spells on your friends and tag Akemi as a enemy. If she gets within a predetermined range of either of them, you'll be magically alerted to where they are. This way, if something does happen, you'll know instantly."

"That sounds like a good start, at least." Hitomi said. "At this point, I'll take what I can get."

"Proximity spells aren't hard to learn." Alice said. "Though you will have to, well, tag your targets. Madoka and Sayaka won't be hard, but if you want this warning system to work, you're going to have to tag Akemi too. From what you said of her, I wouldn't be surprised if she could remove the tag if she figures out it's there. You'll have to be careful."

"I'm sure I can come up with something." Hitomi said. "I'm not going to let her hurt them."

"Yeah!" Alice said. "If she's stupid enough to mess with them after you warned her, it's her own fault." she gave Hitomi a smile. "If she does start getting really active, I could always ward them for you. The only thing stopping me from suggesting this as a course of action immediately is that wards are really flashy and take about fifteen seconds to fully set. Seeing as you don't want them to know about magic yet, it's not really a good plan. There's just about no way they'd manage to not notice."

"Thank you for the offer." Hitomi said. "It's really nice of you to support me like this."

"We're friends." Alice said. "Your battles are my battles. If it turns out that Akemi is a dark all-powerful evil goddess bent on destroying the world, I'll still fight her with you."

Hitomi laughed. "I don't think we have to worry about that."

"Not yet." Jaxx said, stepping out of thin air in front of Hitomi. "Give it time."

"Jaxx! You're back!" Alice said, rubbing him gently. Jaxx looked around the room, shooting Hitomi a glance.

"I expect a very fancy cat bed from you." Jaxx said. "Or will princess Hitomi let me sleep on her bed?"

Hitomi blushed, and Alice laughed. "Oh, princess Hitomi is very kind to us peasants." Alice said in a mock-servile tone. "She has let me into her inner chambers, and treated me very well."

"Will the princess let me kiss her hand?" Jaxx said, padding up to Hitomi slowly and licking her hand briefly. Hitomi blushed brighter, and Alice laughed harder.

"That's really quite enough." Hitomi said.

"Oh, but, princess, I'm having so much fun!" Alice said. "You have to let me play a little bit."

Hitomi felt a wave of power surge through her briefly, and she turned to Alice. "Yes, I have to let you play a little bit. I can't stop you." she shook her head briefly. "But I'm still going to ask you to stop, please. There's something we need to talk about."

"Oh, but, princess!" Alice said, and Hitomi glared.

"It's about the contract." Hitomi said shortly, and Alice's smile dropped.

"Oh." she gave Hitomi a serious look. "What happened?"

"You have to let me play a little bit." Hitomi said, and Alice's eyes widened.

"Oh, oh, Hitomi." Alice put a hand on Hitomi's shoulder. "Thank you for letting me know so quickly. I didn't mean that." she snapped, and Hitomi flashed white momentarily. "That should clear the command."

"This isn't the first time." Hitomi said. "You really need to pay attention to your word choice, Alice. When you even jokingly try to get me to tell you something I'm hiding, it hurts me. If you tell me that I 'have to try' something, I literally have to try it. You don't do it too much, and you haven't done anything too bad yet, but it's uncomfortable, Alice. It really is. Every slip of your tongue punishes me."

"Hitomi..." Alice said, and Hitomi down at her.

"I can feel it tugging at my magic, burning at my will, my body chilled with fright. You accidentally play with my core, Alice. I'm filled with an unnatural fear, compelled to follow a will not my own and almost unable to stop it. Sometimes, your commands just overpower me, and I simply do what you say because I'm too weak at the time to fight against the consequences of resistance." Hitomi began to shake. "And I know it's only going to get worse as time goes on."

Alice leaned in, hugging Hitomi. "I don't want to hurt you, Hitomi. I only want to be your friend."

"I know." Hitomi said quietly. "I just want to be your friend too, Alice."

"No one should have to go through that." Alice said. "I promise, Hitomi. I'll be better about this. I'll make sure that you don't have to feel that again because I messed up." she held Hitomi at arms length, looking into her eyes. "You will never complain about this again, do you understand? I'll make sure of it."

Hitomi felt a wave of power surge through her briefly, and she turned to Alice. "I understand. I will never complain about this again." she said.

"I'll make it up to you, you'll see." Alice said. "Thank you for letting me know about this. I would never want to hurt you, Hitomi." she grinned. "But, hey, let's not let this keep us down!" she nodded at Hitomi. "If you don't want to play princess, what do you want to do? We are in your room, after all."

"I don't know." Hitomi said. "I have some games lying around we could play."

"Sounds good to me." Alice said, laying her head down on Hitomi. "Let's stay friends forever, Hitomi. I hope you always feel comfortable telling me your problems."

Inside her head, Hitomi screamed. She knew things were wrong, very, very wrong. But on her lips, a smile still sat. It was very hard to complain about the command forbidding complaint after all. Alice didn't mean it. She never meant it. And she was such a good friend, so kind and earnest. Hitomi laid her head down on Alice.

"Me too." Hitomi said. "I'm so happy I met you, Alice."

At that moment she almost meant it, too.

##########

End Chapter Report:

Shizuki Hitomi has unlocked the achievement 'Too Meta' for making fun of the author's style while in the story.

Shizuki Hitomi has unlocked the achievement 'Exact Words' for going through her fifth contract born command.


	7. Chapter the Seventh

Chapter the Seventh, in which a champion is fought, and Hitomi learns a very important lesson about witchcraft.

May 30, 08:22 PM – Forty-four days, three hours, thirty-eight minutes remaining.

Hitomi looked up at the screen just as it flickered into life. Their group of eight, the whole of Eve's party, were gathered around the table in the meeting room. Eve had set up a projector at some point, and was currently attempting to get it to function properly.

"Darn thing..." she muttered. "The track's jammed again." she slapped the side, and there was a clicking noise. A few seconds passed, and then the first slide came into focus on the screen. The slide had a picture of a castle on it, and some writing. It read: "My plan: by Eve." there was a little subtitle as well, reading "Art by Eve."

Silvia laughed. "What the heck?" she said. "What is this about, Eve?"

Eve sighed, and pulled a lever on the side of the device, switching the slide.

"Due to the fact that we have been bugged, I have been forced to take certain measures to insure that the enemy doesn't know our movements." the slide read. "As the bug is, as far as I can tell, audio only, this method of presentation was suggested to me by Derick."

Eve gave Silvia a look. "Does that answer your question?"

"Pfft." she said. "You have an uncanny skill for prediction."

Eve pulled the lever again, and the slide changed. "We have determined the location of the first champion, who goes by the name of 'painkiller'." the slide read. There was a fairly well done drawing of a half-naked man with twin blades, an evil grin on his face. Eve pulled the lever and changed to the next slide. "He's one of the two melee champions. He likes commanding armies, leading by example and fear, but he's not all that strong alone." the slide changed again. "We have no way of attacking him when he's surrounded by his whole force. However, there is one time when he is not under nearly as much protection." the slide switched half-way, and jammed again. Eve cursed under her breath, then kicked the machine. Smoke came out of the slide bay. She sighed and opened the slide bay, manually moving the slide into place. "He attends to business at the castle of Exor every two days. At least, he has every two days for the past eight, while we've been able to track him." Eve didn't bother with the lever this time, just switching out the slides with her hands. "He stays there for about an hour and a half, then leaves. The reason is unknown." Eve switched the slides again. "We have done some basic reconnaissance on the castle. There are less than fifty guards, and it is set up more for living purposes than for defense. Think more palace than castle." Hitomi wondered how many slides Eve had. "Though strong, any three of us should be able to handle Painkiller on our own. The castle isn't well fortified, and we'll have the advantage of surprise this time. He always shows up at dinner time, from 5:30 to 7:00 PM. That gives us nine hours to plan this time, much better then the three I gave you last time." There was a little picture of a shrugging Eve and the caption 'sorry' written below it. "The plan is to storm the castle and kill the champion as quickly as possible. Derick and Max will preform the initial push, then Fox, Lilly, and I will press on after the champion. Derick and Max will stay back inside the castle and make sure no one sneaks up on us. Alice, Hitomi, and Silvia will stay outside and guard our rear."

"Wait, no fair!" Alice said, but Eve held up a hand and switched the slide again.

"Remember, Painkiller operates with an army. If it shows up to try to help defend the castle, we'll need the warning, and the defense. Also, if Derick and Max require help, they'll need the outside group to be fresh and ready, as the champion team will have to be concentrating on their goal." Alice pouted for a moment, but seemed to be largely accepting of the situation. "Once we've killed the champion, we'll just leave. We have no need to hold the castle or kill everyone inside." Eve paused, looking around the room. "Any questions?" the final slide read.

"I have one." Hitomi said. "Do we have anything to write on so they can't hear our questions?"

Eve paused. "No. I didn't think about that." she said. "Well, hopefully there were no questions, then."

"It was straightforward enough." Fox said. "I think I get it."

"I'd switch Lilly and Hitomi, if I were you." Derick said. "Hitomi's got much higher damage output than Lilly, and Lilly's got more range. They seem like they'd work better if you reversed the roles."

"But then I'd have to break up the spectrum." Eve said. "And if Alice gets hurt when Hitomi isn't around and could have helped her..."

"It's not like I'm going to stop her. Sure, the contract has a defense clause written into it, but I have to actually decide to punish her, you know. I'd never do that to Hitomi." Alice said.

Eve hesitated. "Hitomi, are you okay with this?" she asked.

"Of course. If it will increase our likelihood of success, I'll do it." Hitomi affirmed. "I didn't join this group for fun, you know. I'm here to learn the skills I need to defend my world, and I'll only get them if I actually fight."

"You'll be 'actually fighting' wherever you are." Eve said. "Not going into any details because of the people listening, but there isn't a single part of the plan that I don't expect to see combat. The reason I stuck you two together is you work well together. And, well, you're usefulness as a high-damage fighter is a little bit random, no offense."

Hitomi flared into form 1 with a flick of her wrist. "None taken." she said.

"When did you learn to do that?" Max asked, awed.

"We've been practicing." Alice said. "I don't know what you thought we were doing with our six days, but Hitomi and I have been going through some serious magical training. I've taught her three new combat spells, and we've been honing her form shifting."

"Six days is almost fifteen percent of our remaining time." Hitomi said. "I figured that we shouldn't waste it." she returned to base state, looking at Eve. "I can jump to one or two at will, and three with a little effort. Four is still a bit of a reach." she smiled. "Does that make it reliable enough for you?"

"Derick is right, she can do more damage than I can." Lilly said. "She lacks skill, but you and Fox are more than capable of soaking up the damage. Hitting the large, distinct target in the enclosed space isn't outside of her ability." she sighed. "Yes, she's young, but you really have to stop thinking about her that way. Alice and Hitomi are both better fighters than Max, Silvia, and myself at least. Hitomi probably outdoes everyone in terms of pure damage output, though she wouldn't last as long. They're just as capable as the rest of us."

"At the rate she's developing, Hitomi's going to be our strongest member in all respects save leadership before we're done." Derick said.

Hitomi blushed. "I'm not really sure..." she said quietly.

Fox grinned at Eve. "Good on you for getting her, Eve. Now, start using her."

"Fine." Eve said. "I'll switch Hitomi and Lilly. Everything else stays the same. Are we agreed?"

Everyone nodded. "Alright, dismissed! I'll see the rest of you here at 5:30 sharp." Eve said, turning the projector off.

"We should see if we can get that shield spell down before we go." Alice said to Hitomi as they walked out of the room. "Though, really, it's no fair that they put you on the front lines without me."

"You helped me convince them!" Hitomi said, exasperated.

"Oh, I'm glad you're allowed, don't get me wrong. I just wish I was too." Alice said. "You know that even if she won't admit it, she put us outside because it was the least dangerous position."

"We are kids, Alice." Hitomi said. "I don't mind keeping out as long as there is a good reason I can't be helpful elsewhere. But if I can be useful, I think I should be. I am the glass cannon, after all. A mission where the point is to kill one target as quickly as possible just happens to be what I'm best suited for. It makes sense that I would be on the strike team. You're a support, Alice. A really good support, but a support none the less. You really don't belong in the heart of a battle, just from a neutral planning perspective."

"We're thirteen!" Alice said. "Hardly little kids. And I'm more than capable of holding my own, whether I'm stuck in the category of 'support' or not."

"Think about it like this." Hitomi said. "You're my spectrum leader, right? Leaders don't go out onto the front lines, they send their men to do that. You're the controller and I'm your dragon. This is you going full in. You're putting your best people on the job."

"Yeah, yeah." Alice said, sighing. "I know it makes sense. But I don't want it to. I want to help more. I know I could. Why can't Eve get that I want to protect her as much as she wants to protect me?" Alice shook her head. "Sorry. I shouldn't be this down. I'm just frustrated, that's all. I feel so useless."

"Oh, Alice." Hitomi said softly. "You're not useless. Not everyone can have the most flashy job. You can't build a house without nails. They need you just as much as anyone else." she gave Alice a serious look. "_I_ need you, Alice. You're my teacher and friend. I couldn't do this without you."

Alice seemed troubled still, but she slowly let her natural smile work its way back onto her face. "You're right." she said with some satisfaction. "It's not like I need to be in the spotlight all the time. Besides, if I'm in places where I don't have to use as much of my power, I'll be able to help better if I'm needed." she nudged Hitomi. "Thanks."

They came to the top of the stairs, where Alice seemed to be confused as to which direction to turn. "Who's room are we going to?" Hitomi asked, prompting. Alice paused, seeming to be considering something.

"Lets go to mine." she said after a moment. "I have a few things to show you, now that I think about it."

Hitomi was curious at that, but she didn't say anything, letting Alice lead her to her room and usher her inside. She quickly put the candles on, offering Hitomi the bed. "You know, you're the first person I've ever met with a larger bed then mine." Alice told Hitomi. "It's honestly been bothering me."

Hitomi giggled lightly, and Alice did as well. Whatever mood she had had before seemed to have largely passed now, a fact for which Hitomi was quite glad.

"Well, my young charge-" Alice said, and Hitomi couldn't help but giggle again. Alice sighed. "I'm trying to be serious here. This is important. It's not bad or anything, but it's important." she shook her head. "Fine. My contractee, if you like that better. So far, I've been so busy teaching you how to cast spells that I haven't really told you anything about witchcraft itself."

"Is this really the time?" Hitomi asked.

"You are a witch. This stuff is important." Alice said. "Besides, you're plenty ready for the battle already." Hitomi sighed, but she had to agree. She didn't have much maintenance to do as far as preparation was concerned, and to be honest, she had been wondering when Alice might give her a talk like this. Alice was right, she was a witch now. She really should figure out exactly what that meant.

"So, I guess you can ask me questions." Alice said. "It's not like I have a lecture prepared."

Hitomi thought for a moment. There had been something on her mind, ever since she had gotten her power, something she really didn't want to know the answer too. "Am I still human?" she asked tentatively.

Alice paused, then laughed. Hitomi felt her cheeks flush slightly. "Of course you're still human!" Alice said. "You're human through and through. Hitomi, the process isn't quite that invasive."

"Well, I mean, most humans I know can't do magic with their blood." Hitomi said stiffly.

"The power doesn't come from the blood. The power comes from the contract. We give away a little of our will in exchange for power. At least, that's how it's supposed to work. The blood just channels that." Alice explained.

"Supposed to work?" Hitomi asked.

"Oh, uh..." Alice said, pausing for a moment. She seemed troubled. She let out a long, slow sigh. "Well, I guess now is as good a time as any to tell you, seeing as we're going over witchcraft stuff anyway." she gave Hitomi a sad smile. "I'm not exactly what you'd consider a normal witch. I'm the culmination of seventeen generations of spectral witches, born on the night of the blood moon. To say I haven't had a normal development would be an understatement. Do you remember when I told you that most witches have to sell their souls to the devil for power?" Hitomi nodded briefly. "Well, I kind of lied a little bit. You see, almost every witch has to do that, or else join someone's spectrum. But I'm an exception." Alice glanced at Hitomi. "I sort of just have these powers. The rest of the witches thought I was going to be the start of a new revolution. Of course, I turned out to be an average powered spectral leader instead."

Hitomi looked at Alice, nodding slowly. A few seconds of silence drew out between them. Hitomi coughed, looking expectantly at Alice. After a significant period, perhaps half a minute, Alice frowned. "What?" she said.

"Oh, I was just waiting for you to get to the part you were nervous about." Hitomi said. Alice stared at her for a second, then began to laugh.

"Oh, right. I forget, sometimes, that you were raised in a very different place than I was." Alice said. "That probably sounds no weirder to you than anything else I've told you. Any other witch I said that to would flip out. Many have."

"Well, I didn't need that story to know you were special, Alice." Hitomi said, and Alice beamed.

"Flattery won't get you anywhere." Alice said huffily, then turned away from Hitomi as she giggled. "Well, anyway, you distracted me. We were supposed to be talking about witchcraft."

"Right." Hitomi said. "Uh, let's see. Are there any weaknesses I should know about?"

"Iron and Sliver." Alice said.

Hitomi paused. "Wait, the metals?"

"Yeah, the metals." Alice said. "It's not like in the stories. They won't burn you horribly or anything, but they will give you an awful rash if you hold them for too long."

"But, I mean, sliver." Hitomi said. "I like silver."

"Sorry." Alice said. "I don't make the rules."

"Fine." Hitomi said. "You mentioned the 'blood moon?' What's that?"

"Oh, did I?" Alice said. "Sorry, archaic term. Eve says I should be more careful. I meant a lunar eclipse. During a lunar eclipse, we witches become more powerful. Oh, right!" Alice turned away suddenly, rummaging through some papers. "That's what I wanted to show you. Here." she handed Hitomi a star chart with some concentric lines drawn on it. Hitomi looked at it for a moment, trying to figure out what it meant. Her eyes traced the little lines and the read the date markers. Suddenly, she gasped.

"Oh, that's..." Hitomi said. "Useful."

"A thirty-seven minute total lunar eclipse in 44 days." Alice said. "Or, for us, the night before the summer solstice. It will last from two hours fourteen minutes before time zero until one hour thirty-seven minutes before time zero, if I've done my math right." Alice scrunched up her face. "Which, knowing me, is not very likely. Still, this is as good as I can do."

"That's great!" Hitomi said. "Have you told Eve?"

"No." Alice said. "I don't want to get her hopes up. If it's cloudy and we don't get a boost, it'll be deadly to have planned around us being stronger. It's magic, remember, so even though it doesn't make any sense that clouds would be able to block magical energy, they do. We have to be able to see the moon for it to work. But, yeah, it's cool." Alice grinned. "Besides, if everything goes well, we'll already have won by then. Cutting it an hour from the end seems too close to comfort for me."

"That's true." Hitomi agreed. "We need to fight six champions. Given a generous six days of recovery between each fight, and ten days between the final champion and taking the fortress of the devourers, we should be done in thirty-eight days, with six days to spare."

"I am envious of what you can do in your head." Alice said.

"That was addition, Alice." Hitomi said.

"It was magic, as far as I'm concerned." she said. "Math. Now, that's a witchcraft that I don't understand."

"Speaking of witchcraft," Hitomi said, trying to get back onto topic. "where does the power come from, anyway? You said 'from the contract'- what does that mean?"

"I wish I knew." Alice said. "You can think of witchcraft like a collection of useful tools that people found in a strange box. We know how to reproduce the tools we have, and we know what the tools do through experimentation, but we don't really understand why or how they work. Spells are discovered, not invented. There's no magic theory for witchcraft. Whether that's because of the nature of the magic is random, or if the rules of it are just too hard for us to figure out, we don't know. I like the more scientific approach, but that view is rather unpopular."

"Let's see..." Hitomi thought for a little bit. It wasn't like she wasn't interested in witchcraft. She should have plenty of questions. But, when she tried to think of any, she drew up blank. "Oh!" she said suddenly. "Right. You keep saying that you're a spectral witch. Are there non-spectral witches?"

"Plenty. Actually, spectral witches are far less common than most other types." Alice said. "We're the most powerful group that doesn't need to drain their own lifespan to cast magic, but convincing people to be bound to other people forever isn't usually that easy of a thing to do, even for the power boost. That, and being a spectrum leader is hereditary, so the number of leaders is pretty low and likely to stay that way." Alice smiled at Hitomi. "As far as I know, I'm one of only eighteen spectrum leaders worldwide. There are less than one hundred spectral witches all told." she nudged Hitomi. "You make up over one percent of the population. Unfortunately, I don't know all that much about the other types of witches. We keep ourselves to ourselves, and we don't tend to get along. I know that ritual witches are the most powerful, but their magic requires at least one human sacrifice every spell. I think I knew someone who was bone witch. They do fortune telling, if I remember correctly."

"There are so many different kinds of magic!" Hitomi exclaimed.

"Well, this world is a hub between many different worlds." Alice said. "We pick up a little from everywhere."

"It's still terribly confusing." Hitomi said. "I think I'll stick with the magic I understand." she paused, then laughed lightly. "And that's a phrase I never thought I'd say."

"Magic..." Alice said, seeming to be trying to remember something."Oh, yeah!" she exclaimed. "Right, that shield spell!" she grabbed some blank paper from around her room. "You're going to be kicking some force of darkness butt in nine hours. Might as well have some way to absorb shocks."

"Nine hours..." Hitomi said. It sounded like such a short time, but she was sure she'd feel every second. Her mind began to wander as she contemplated the fight ahead. Now that she was at liberty to think about it, she found herself surprised at just how simple Eve's plan was, and how little they really knew going in to this. She had always imagined battle planning to be much more thorough and precise than this. Then again, they had very few ways to get information, even fewer resources, and not very much time. Give what they had to work with, they were doing pretty good. Everyone was doing their very best, and it showed.

Of course, sometimes even your 'very best' isn't good enough, if the forces stacked against you are simply to far out of your league. This wasn't a storybook. The bad guys win on occasion in real life. There is a point where, no matter how hard you try, loss is still inevitable. Hitomi could only hope that they were over that particular threshold.

-*%*-

Hitomi laid down on her back with a groan, letting her aching body relax for a moment. Sitting hunched over a page for who knows how long got to be very uncomfortable eventually. Sighing, she looked at her watch, which she had gotten to keep track of time here. It read 06:18 AM; add eleven hours to get fortress time, and it was 05:18 PM here. Twelve minutes left until the meeting time. Twelve minutes until the battle. She felt a chill sweep through her for a moment, but she did her best to keep calm. She'd been in one fight before now. She knew what to expect. It was terrible, but at least she knew. As much as she was dreading the conflict, she almost wanted it to start early. She had hardly been able to concentrate on her work this whole time, her mind distracting her with the potentials and could-be's of the coming battle.

"I don't think there's any point trying again." Alice said. "We only have a few minutes left, and you're still hours off from completing it." she sighed. "I have no idea why this spell is giving you so much trouble, but we'll just have to hope you can output enough that they don't have time to hit you. The best defense is a good offense, as they say."

"I'm the glass cannon." Hitomi sighed. "Maybe defensive spells just don't like me."

"Maybe. I swear, it's the same way for me and filter spells." Alice said. "It takes me hours to learn a single one, when I usually need only minutes. It's gotten to the point where I just ignore them when I come across them."

"Eleven minutes now." Hitomi said.

Alice stood up, then laid down next to Hitomi, her body in an inverted orientation such that her feet were next to Hitomi's head. She tapped Hitomi lightly on the arm, and Hitomi extended her hand into Alice's outstretched one, the two laying down and providing each other comfort through light hand squeezes.

"I'm really glad you're here, Hitomi." Alice said. "I know I keep saying that, but I really mean it. You're special to me. You're my best friend."

"There are a few things that can never be said too much. One is 'I want you with me.' One is 'you are important.' One is 'because we're friends.'" Hitomi said. "Congratulations on basically saying all three at once."

"Please be safe." Alice said quietly.

"I will be." Hitomi promised. "You have to do the same, okay?"

"Of course I'll be fine." Alice said. "I don't even have to do the hard part."

"Wait until the army shows up before saying that." Hitomi said.

Alice laughed lightly, nervously. Hitomi gave her hand another squeeze, and she seemed to relax. The two laid there, not saying anything, just staring up at the ceiling. Hitomi gave herself the liberty to relax a little, letting her mind wander in the comfort of her friend.

The candles bobbed up and down lightly in the air. Hitomi let herself wonder briefly how long they lasted. She'd never seen them burn down, or watched Alice replace any. Her mind told her that the answer was 'magic'. Her gut told her that 'magic' wasn't a good enough answer for everything. As much as she pretended to know what she was doing, she really was quite lost in this world. She didn't know much of anything about any of the people she was teaming with, or the people who's world she was protecting. She hadn't even spoken with a single one of the four and three quarters billion people that were supposed to live here. And then there was this whole quest. They were fighting the devourers. Who were they, anyway? Why were they attacking this world? How did Eve know so much about their plan? Hitomi's mind flashed back to the previous battle. The commander had called Eve 'the lowest warrior of the light'. What, exactly, was this 'light'? And if it was against these devourers, why had they only sent their 'lowest warrior'?

"Hitomi?" Alice said, snapping Hitomi out of her thoughts. "Are you okay? You're muttering to yourself."

"Oh, it's nothing. I was just thinking about a few things." Hitomi said. There was a short pause, and Alice sat up. She shook her head a few times, clearing any tiredness from it, then smiled down at Hitomi.

"Well, I'm going down now." Alice said. "There's only a couple minutes left anyway, and I don't just want to sit here doing nothing. You coming?"

"Sure." Hitomi nodded, getting to her feet as well. "What do you want to bet that we're going to be the last to arrive?"

"Nah, that'll be Lilly." Alice said. "She always pushes things to the last minute." she frowned briefly. "I think she spends the time applying makeup. She showed me this kit once that she had prepared so that it wouldn't get worn away if she was splashed with blood." Alice shook her head. "I guess everyone has something."

"She wears makeup into battle?" Hitomi asked. "That seems to be both overkill and pointless."  
"She says that you never know when you'll meet the right person, and she wants to keep her options open." Alice said. "But, yeah, it's pretty ridiculous."

"I don't need to answer to you." Lilly said, coming up behind the two girls as they descended the stairs. "I have a coping mechanism. There's nothing wrong with it."

"You say that." Alice said. "If it's true... that's another matter."

Lilly huffed, and Alice and Hitomi giggled. The three of them entered the meeting room together, the others giving them nods as they entered.

"Looks like everyone couldn't wait." Max said. "We still have eight minutes on the clock."

"I hope this doesn't take too long." Hitomi said. "I'd hate to miss class for the battle." there was a little bit of laughter from around the room, everyone looking for an excuse to release the building tension.

"I doubt it will take two hours." Silvia said, comparing the levels of fluid inside of two vials. "Your class starts 7:30 PM fortress time, right? I can't imagine this will end up taking more than twenty minutes." she gave Hitomi a look. "It must have felt longer, but that last battle you were in only took, what, thirteen minutes from when you teleported out to when you teleported back in? Something like that."

"Can we go a little early?" Fox asked. "It's only a few minutes." he was cleaning his sword vigorously, and seemed to be beginning to get hyper, his feet dancing lightly back and forth.

"If you want to alert the army before he separates from them." Eve said. "Remember, while he only qualifies as a 'difficult target' on his own, when he's backed up by five thousand men we don't stand a chance. The reason we're stopping him here is because it's one of the very few times he's not surrounded by his army. Eight minutes sooner is the difference between fighting about ten to one and fighting about six hundred fifty to one. One is stupid, the other is near instantly fatal. I think it is safe to say that while we might be desperate enough to act a little dumb, we aren't suicidal just yet."

Fox growled quietly, but he didn't say anything. Max and Derick seemed to be conferencing, talking strategy. Lilly extended her hand, summoning a four and a half foot longbow from thin air and checking the string. Silvia put away her potions and looked at Eve with boredom. Eve kept her eye on the clock, waiting. Alice snapped and summoned her hat, which she had left upstairs, putting it firmly on her head with determination. Jaxx appeared and leaped onto Alice's shoulders, curling up around them. Hitomi adjusted her magical sword belt, feeling the comfortable tightness around her waist and comforting coolness of her focus around her neck. No one said a word.

Eight minutes passed.

"Now." Eve said, not looking away from the clock. Derick flipped open his spell book, Hitomi jammed her eyes shut, and after a light tingling she felt the ground turn to dirt below her feet, the air humid. The tingling repeated itself three more times, and then Hitomi heard the spell-book close.

"Done." Derick announced, and Hitomi opened her eyes. They were now only a few hundred meters from the edge of what looked very much like a storybook castle, complete with moat, drawbridge, portcullis, and rainbow colored towers. The guards, or at least the two she could see at any rate, were wearing golden armor with a unicorn painted onto their shields. She would never have expected someone with a name like 'painkiller' to live, or even visit, a place like this.

"Wish us luck." Max said to the others, charging up his weapon. Derick took a few steps out from the group, then turned back to face the others, his sorcerers cloak blowing in the light wind which began to blow.

"Give us, say, two minutes to get as far as we can." Derick said. Eve nodded. He put a hand up, signaling departure. "K. Later." he and Max made their way purposefully and quickly to the entrance. The other six watched them for about thirty seconds as they crossed the space. The guards turned to them. Max engaged them in conversation for a few seconds, then shot them both before they had a chance to move.

"Let's move in." Eve said, and the rest of the group followed after the first two, pausing by the gate. There was the sound of combat coming from inside, and periodic flashes of light emitted from the entrance and, slowly, the windows of higher floors. Eve counted down from ninety under her breath. When she reached zero, she tapped Hitomi and Fox. "Time." she said, motioning them to follow her in.

"Good luck!" Alice said, squeezing Hitomi's hand one final time before letting her enter the castle with Eve and Fox.

As soon as Hitomi stepped over the threshold, the atmosphere changed. The walls were cold stone, and the ringing of battle could be heard all around her. There were scorch-marks on the floor and walls, and she began to see crumpled bodies of soldiers around her as they passed. Suddenly, she began to feel sick. It was claustrophobic, being in this place of stone and fire and death. She shuttered and tried to concentrate on Eve and Fox.

"There's another group!" someone yelled from a side passage, and Hitomi was shocked out of her growing unease by the blunt of a blade. Her nose stung horribly from the blow, but she easily managed to leap out of the way of a second, more intentional attack. She heard Fox howl with delight, and Eve draw her sword. Hitomi dropped to the floor as one of the attackers attempted to tackle her, already casting spells on the way down. Loading it with charge, she threw out a net of emerald energy, pinning the man to the ceiling. She called up her spectral blades just in time to parry a strike, then retaliated, throwing her magical weapons at her attacker. When he collapsed, she tapped her belt, drew her sword, and turned to face her next target. With a small grin of satisfaction, she noted that there weren't any left. Eve and Fox had been more than a match for the other four. With a flick of her wrist, Hitomi slammed the man in her magical net into the ground, then quickly stabbed her blade through an open space in his armor. He stopped moving.

"More incoming!" Fox said, pointing to another ten men who had gathered in the hall in front of them, pointing wildly and beginning to run at them.

"Derick and Max better have a good explanation for this." Eve growled.

There was a rumble, and suddenly the ground they were standing on bucked, knocking the three off of their feet and into a net of ropes on the ceiling. Various cheering noises came from the ground, and Hitomi struggled to get in a position where she could see the people approaching. She heard Eve cursing rapidly, and Fox began to hack through the ropes with abandon. He managed to free himself in only a few seconds, dropping to the ground on top of a few of the men. Hitomi managed to get herself in a place where she could clearly see what was going on. With a deft strike, Fox severed one of the men in half with his battleaxe, then spun and stabbed another with his sword. With a clash of metal, he deflected a wild strike which would have caught him, giving the man a hard kick in the chest for his trouble. His opponents kept striking in the spaces where he had been, confusion and then panic rising in them as they found themselves unable to locate where the attacks were coming from. The group broke, some of the men running away. Fox knocked the nearest one down and gave chase to the others, taking them out one by one, manipulating their movements, sneaking around them in plain sight. He didn't waste any time taking care of the group. Not a single one managed to hit him.

Hitomi let her spell fall. She was going to provide a little support, but it seemed like he didn't need it. She paused, then raised the spell again. A smile came across her face. Well, that was how you cued up spells for later use, she guessed. Adrenaline was a very good teacher.

Fox walked back over to the others. "I think the release mechanism is... this one?" he said, pulling a lever. The ropes shook for a moment, then dropped Eve and Hitomi to the ground floor.

"Sixteen." Eve said. "That's far to many to have missed out of a group of fifty." she looked around. "And this castle seems larger inside than I would have thought possible given what it looks like." she hesitated. "I might have underestimated the strength of the enemy here, but it's too late to turn back."

There was a rumble, and a jet of flame burst out of a balcony on a higher level. Eve cupped her hands together and yelled up. "Hey, any idea where Painkiller might be?"

There was a pause, and Max poked his head out over the edge. "Go down this hall, take your first right, double doors at the end. We think, anyway." he grinned. "See you in a few minutes!" he turned around, and there was a flash of light and the sound of a discharging energy weapon.

Eve waved Fox and Hitomi on. "Come on then." she said, running down the hall. Hitomi set two nets up, holding them until she needed it. They flew down the corridor, then to the double doors. With a cascading flash of red sparks, the doors blew open, revealing a two meter tall, tanned, ripped man with two very evil looking blades waiting for them.

"I was expecting-" he began in a voice like rolling thunder, but then Hitomi released her spells, leaped into form three, and dashed the ten meters between them in the blink of an eye, leaving a streak of emerald light in her wake, the stone tiles on the floor cracking from the force. He had about enough time to look shocked before she plunged her sword through his chest in one clean strike.

Hitomi expected there to be a lot of blood. That didn't happen. Instead, there was a sound like hissing air being released from a tire, and the man dissolved into dust.

"Hitomi!" Eve yelled, and she felt a blunt pain across her back as Painkiller kicked her into the far wall. It cracked from the force of impact, and Hitomi felt her power fly from her in a rush.

"Quite the feisty little one." he said. "Are you sure you're on the right team, Emerald? That kind of 'kill first, think later' mindset is one I admire." he sighed. "Too bad you chose the wrong target."

Hitomi struggled to her feet. Her vision was blurry now, and Painkiller seemed to be going in and out of focus. She coughed violently, her chest screaming out at every breath. She didn't taste any blood, though. She was stunned, that was all.

Fox charged in next, with Eve behind him, already firing her guns. Painkiller didn't seem to be paying her attention any more, turning to the others. Fox engaged him directly, and Painkiller seemed to be having trouble defending himself from the attack, slowly being pushed to the far wall. Still, he was able to block the attacks at all, and Fox was becoming visibly less confident as time passed. Eve hit him with her guns a few times, but they didn't seem to have any effect. Hitomi noticed as the skin rippled slightly under each impact, and the bullet seemed to disappear. She was fairly close to where Fox had managed to push him, and he was still ignoring her; the child effect was coming in handy for once. She was almost recovered now, and charged up a powered net, to both trap and shock her target. Eve got frustrated and moved in, drawing her sword and joining Fox in the melee. Hitomi saw Painkiller grin as the two engaged him directly. One of Fox's strikes managed to nick him as Eve held one of the blades with her own. The others were too focused on the battle, on not getting themselves killed to notice, but Hitomi did. The skin shimmered again slightly, and Hitomi knew suddenly that this was nothing more than another construct. It was operating too well to be a simple construct, though. I had to be being controlled directly, and that meant...

Hitomi held her powered net and summoned a set of spectral blades, sending three out across at his back, which was turned to her. He spun and shattered them across the side, and they burst into shards of useless, quickly fading light. "Don't think I've forgotten you." he said. Hitomi gasped in well faked surprise, then let the other two blades go, pressing them across at his sides. Eve and Fox turned quickly, and took the opportunity to strike him while he was no longer looking at them. He kicked out a leg and tripped Fox, parring Eve with one blade and smashing Hitomi's other strikes with the other. "You have to stop thinking I'm distracted. I thought you would be more entertaining then this. I don't forget my enemies."

"No, but you've forgotten where your eyes are." Hitomi said, turning and throwing her net at the only space in the room where all three attacks could have been seen from. She didn't get the position quite right, only clipping his arm, but the net's shock made him lose control of the construct and shattered his invisibility. Eve and Fox looked around surprised for a moment, then turned to face the man. Hitomi stepped out from the edge of the wall and joined them, leveling her sword.

"Damn girl." he spat, tearing through the magic with little trouble. "You're too smart for your own good." he ran at the three of them, his swords drawn and his face a mask of fury. Hitomi threw herself into form three again, popping a series of energetic bolts at him as he charged. They hit him, but didn't seem to have the effect she wanted. Fox stepped in front, parrying his first strike as Eve danced around him, trying to create an opening. Hitomi tried to join it, but her attacks were easily disrupted, and she accidentally sliced Fox's battleaxe in half with her sword. Fox shot her a dirty look and drew another blade from his back, reengaging. Hitomi looked down. Raw power, check. Speed, check. Intelligence, check. Skill? Not so much.

Luckily, Eve and Fox seemed more than capable of holding Painkiller on their own. Hitomi stepped out of the battle before she made things harder for the others by either getting in their way or getting herself hurt. She cued up twenty-five spectral blades just in case she needed them, then watched the battle unfold.

Painkiller was quite impressive, holding back the other two on his own. They seemed to be evenly matched, though little by little Fox and Eve were getting the upper hand as he began to tire faster then them. Suddenly, he ducked down and swiped out Fox's legs, slicing him across the side as he fell. The cut wasn't very deep, but he dropped his weapons in the shock. Eve's eyes widened, and she jumped in front of Fox, taking Painkiller's blade through her stomach as he lunged to attack him. He grinned.

She grinned back. His smile fell. She pulled him closer to her through the blade and he let go, jumping backwards from her. Eve drew the blade out from her stomach, a small trickle of golden blood leaking from the wound. She threw the weapon to the ground, then ran back in on the attack. She spread her wings and leaped into the air, Painkiller's strikes missing wildly as she landed on his shoulders. She stabbed him once before he tossed her off of him, just in time to turn into the recovered Fox's swords. His head came off, landing only a few meters from Hitomi. Silence filled the room.

"My axe." Fox said forlornly. "Look at what you did to my axe, Hitomi. This was my favorite axe."

"Sword training. First thing." Eve said, wiping the blood off of her blade on the pants of Painkiller. "We'll start you as soon as you get back from school."

"I'm sorry." Hitomi said. "I just wanted to help." she looked down. "I just make things harder for everyone."

"Pfft." Fox said. "First of all, aside from breaking my best axe, which I will get you for, you managed to make the fight more interesting for me, so I consider that a plus. Second of all, it would have taken us a good few minutes to find the real one without you, by which time he would know everything about our combat style. I think that was a dramatic, unquestionable net positive." he gave her a look. "Your sword fighting was crap, though. I'm not going to lie, you'd be dead in a few seconds if you needed to rely on that thing."

"Our glass cannon is acting like a glass cannon. Who would have thought." Eve said. "Don't worry, kid. You did great. Really. We won, after all." Eve grinned, then grimaced, touching her stomach lightly. "Though we should get out of here. I feel at about fifty percent now, and I'd rather not have to deal with the rest of the guards if I can manage it."

Hitomi and Fox nodded. Hitomi felt sore all over now, and her power was getting dangerously low. Her will was drained too; she wasn't sure she could form shift again, not unless it was life or death. Fox seemed tired, going so far as to put away his blades. Quietly, the three moved out through the fortress. This time, there were no men in their way, and they made good time.

Suddenly, something fell from a higher level and landed with a thud in front of them. Hitomi blinked, looking at the body. She didn't register anything for a moment, and then the head rolled over, facing her. Her eyes went wide, and she felt a terrible shock spreading through her.

It was Derick. His eyes were glossed over and unmoving, and he looked almost waxy. Two blades were still in him, having been pushed even farther through his body from his impact with the earth. He didn't move, didn't groan, didn't scream. He just laid there, a lifeless object oblivious to the world around it.

Fox screamed in anguish, falling to his knees. Hitomi stood there numbly, unsure what to do. Eve seemed stunned, but she recovered quickly, walking over to his body.

"The little devil already set the teleport." she said. She turned to face the other two, her face as cold as stone. "Hitomi, get Alice, Lilly, and Silvia to meet us here. Fox, you stay here and make sure to keep the teleport from going off before we want it too. I'm going to grab Max." Fox whimpered, and Eve growled at him. He got up, wiped his face, and went down to Derick's spell book, looking at it confusedly. Eve spread her wings and flew upwards, streaking towards the source of ghostly flashes of blue-white light. Hitomi walked smartly and purposefully towards the entrance of the castle, her expression blank. She tried to ignore the clawing sadness ripping up at her. She knew that giving in now could get the others hurt. They needed to leave. They needed to leave immediately.

"Hitomi!" Alice called. "Just in time!" she released a set of white bolts which threw a few approaching attackers backwards. Silvia turned and threw a vial, and a thick green gas rose between the men and the three fighters. Lilly let off a few more bolts, then turned to her.

"We are meeting inside." Hitomi said in perfect monotone. "Follow me." she turned, and the others followed, screams of the men outside fading as they walked rapidly through the castle. By the time they arrived, Eve had returned with Max, who was holding Derick's body and crying. Alice gasped. Lilly moaned lightly, and Silvia started to shake. Eve tapped Max on the shoulder.

"We have incoming." she said shortly, and the others turned slowly to face an oncoming group of twelve. No one moved. "Snap out of it!" Eve yelled. "Or we'll all end up dead!"

Alice couldn't move, Hitomi could tell, so she moved for her. Eve, Hitomi, and Silvia stepped forward. Hitomi saw that Silvia's hands were shaking. Hers were too. Eve seemed unphased, looking at the approaching men with a dead expression. Hitomi flared into form two, then fell back into one. She didn't have the will for higher than that. Silvia prepared to give them men a close up with alchemist fire. Eve drew her blade again, leveling it as they approached.

With a furious scream, Max leaped over the the three and began firing his pulse cannon with disregard for what targets he was hitting. Nearly half of his shots missed, but with the volume he put out it didn't really matter. He took the whole group out in ten seconds, but he didn't stop firing until Eve slapped him on the back of the head.

"Come on." she said, growling. "We don't have time for this. More are going to show up, and Silvia's poison screen isn't going to keep that army at bay on its own forever."

"I'll kill them all." Max muttered, his body shaking so much that he lost the grip of his weapon. "All of them."

Eve picked up his dropped weapon, dragging Max back to the group. "Activate the teleport." she commanded to Fox, and he did so shakily, swiping through the interface. There was a light tingling, then again, and again, until eventually it stopped, the ground beneath there feet a familiar stone. Hitomi opened her eyes. They were on the top of the cliff, overlooking the forest fortress again. The sun shined brightly down on their faces, and the cool, pleasant breeze passed over them. It seemed that all was well in the world, like the sun had taken it upon itself to mock their loss. Hitomi let herself give in to her sadness and found that she couldn't. She stood there, semi-numb, waiting for a response than never came. She felt a warmth on her side, and Alice leaned into her, crying into Hitomi's shirt. Hitomi just held her, shaking as she tried to comfort her friend.

Slowly, quietly, building from nothing until it shook her from head to toe, Eve finally began to cry.

##########

End Chapter Report:

Derick Runemaster(Level 8 Pyromancer) is now dead. Eve's party size has now decreased to seven.

Shizuki Hitomi is now level 4

**Authors Note:**

The stage has been set, the characters introduced, and the plot is beginning to take root. And, behind the scenes, unknown to her, her closest friends have just now been introduced to a world of magic of their own, curated by the charismatic Mami. How will Hitomi cope with the losses of her friends - both in this world and in Mitakihara? How will Hitomi's powers effect the fate of the Puella Magi? Will we ever see Hitomi and Kyousuke kiss? Probably not the third, but come back for the second act of A Different Kind of Spark just in case!


	8. Chapter the Eight-Twelfths(April Fools)

**Authors Note(VERY IMPORTANT): **This is the _April fool's day chapter_. Please, _do not take this chapter seriously._ It is _not_ required to understand the plot of the story, and it will most likely _never_ be referenced again in any capacity. The events inside may be considered canon if you chose, as they technically do not contradict anything that I have planned, but I _strongly_ suggest against it. This chapter does its best _not_ to take itself seriously. This chapter includes content from the following works:

Real life

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

A Certain Scientific Railgun

RWBY

Child's Play, a RPG that I am trying to design

An unnamed RP that I DM'd once

The Academy Project, an unpublished completely original work of mine

Working knowledge of these works is _not_ required to understand the chapter, but may help in its enjoyment. If you harbor a dislike for _any_ of these stories, I suggest you don't read this chapter.

* * *

Chapter the eight-twelfths, in which many random things occur and Hitomi experiences an astonishing number of crossovers.

Day of the seventh zenith moon, 05:53 AM – N/aN days, N/aN hours, N/aN minutes remaining.

Hitomi sat upright, clutching her head. She'd never had a hangover before, but from what other people had described, this felt very much like one. A groan escaped her lips as her head throbbed, feeling altogether too large for her skull. Her eyes burned lightly, and her teeth hurt subtly. She licked her dry lips, stopping suddenly as her head pulsed again, eliciting another groan.

She opened her eyes, looking around the room, trying to get her bearings. At least the light wasn't doing anything to her. She was in a small three meter by five meter room made of what looked like steel. A door on the far wall had a little red light blinking in the corner, and a small digital display was counting down from 380 next to it in what Hitomi assumed were seconds. There didn't appear to be any way to open the door from the inside, at least not from her position. Other than the light, which wasn't coming from any obvious fixture, the only object in the room was the upper bunk of a bunk bed, which Hitomi was laying in the bottom level of. Carefully, still clutching her hurting head, Hitomi crawled out from the bottom bunk and looked up, seeing who was laying in the top.

For a second, she could have sworn it was Alice, the long black hair tricking her mind for a second as she tried to think straight. But she was fairly sure that Alice was a good bit shorter than her, whereas this girl was almost the same size. Her hair was longer, too, and more silky...

Hitomi took a step back as her brain finally put matched the image to her memory. Without her school uniform, it had taken a moment, but the person in front of her was definitely miss Akemi. Wearily, Hitomi took five steps back from the bed, then found her hands pressed up against the far wall. The room was really small. And she was trapped in it with the girl who had exchanged mutual death threats with her. Her eyes glanced over at the little digital display. It now read 347. Hitomi felt a bead of sweat drip down her back. She had no idea where she was, why she was there, or how she had gotten there. She couldn't see Akemi trusting that she had nothing to do with this. This was going to lead to a confrontation if she woke up, Hitomi was nearly certain.

Akemi stirred, and Hitomi pressed herself against the far wall. Her eyes narrowed, and she prepared to cast her weapon attack if she needed it. Her left hand glowed, and a green pentagram etched itself into the wall behind her.

Akemi sat up. She opened her eyes immediately, blinked back tears, then steadied herself, managing not to hold her head in her hands as she reacted to what Hitomi could only assume was the same horrible headache she had. It was fading quickly, at least. Hitomi thought she might be free of it in another minute or two. Still, it would make Akemi even more cranky and less likely to think reasonably.

After a few more seconds, Akemi opened her eyes again, looking directly at Hitomi. She didn't say anything for a short while, her eyes briefly flitting about the room. She looked back at Hitomi.

"I am going to assume that you have no idea what is going on either, and work from there." Akemi said, and Hitomi felt relief flood through her. She let her pentagram fail, taking a single step away from the wall.

"Yeah. I was hoping you might, but I didn't think so." Hitomi said, as neutral as she could manage. "Do you have any memories of-"

"No." Akemi said. "I am just as lost as you, Shizuki." she stepped down gracefully from the bed, facing Hitomi directly. "I suggest we put our differences aside for a moment and agree to be allies until we know what is going on. I feel we should be capable of working together for at least long enough to get out of here. I do not consider you an enemy, despite what you think of me."

"Is it that obvious?" Hitomi said, smiling nervously.

"You hold your self quite stiffly around me, yes, but I was more referring to the death threat. That made your position fairly clear, I believe." Akemi said, walking around Hitomi and examining the door.

"I can't find any way through." Hitomi said. "There don't appear to be any latches, handles, knobs, or buttons. I don't think this door is meant to be operated from the inside."

After a moments further examination, Akemi nodded. "I agree with that analysis." she turned to Hitomi. "So, Shizuki, do you have any enemy's who might attempt something like this?" she gave Hitomi a long look. "My enemy's are the type that kill you if they find you, and of the two of us, only one has much use for a kidnapping. It seems likely that you would have a better idea of what is happening than I do."

"I don't know of anyone who would target me." Hitomi said. "Well, not anyone who wouldn't, as you said, just kill me first."

"We must have been drugged." Akemi said. "We are in different clothes then we had, unless you take to wearing stark white full body suits."

Hitomi looked down at herself. She hadn't really payed attention, but Akemi was correct, she was in a pure white jumpsuit. They both were. There was a thin silver band on her right wrist, which Hitomi touched with her left hand, activating. A hologram appeared above her wrist, displaying a counter ticking down from 279. A quick glance told Hitomi that it was the same number as on the display. Above the countdown was an icon which seemed to look very much like her face, next to a nearly full green bar. It looked almost like a video game character health display. Hitomi noticed Akemi following suit, a very similar display on her screen with Hitomi's faced replaced with Akemi's. Having a quick thought, Hitomi patted her neck, feeling her focus and sighing with relief. Of course she still had it. She had already used magic today, after all. After ten seconds, Hitomi's display closed down.

"Interesting." Hitomi said.

"But not very helpful." Akemi noted.

"Is there anything we can do?" Hitomi asked. "I don't think they would provide us beds and jumpsuits if they planned on gassing us or something, so I don't think we _need_ to escape before the countdown finishes. I think the door will open then, at a guess."

"Hold on." Akemi said, and there was a flash of light. After a brief pause, Hitomi gasped. Akemi's outfit had transformed magically into a dress and leggings, a strong black and purple color scheme running throughout her costume. Hitomi noted that the silver band around her wrist had not transformed, staying exactly where it had been. On her left arm sat what looked somewhat like a small shield, with intricate clockwork inside. Akemi looked at Hitomi briefly. "Normal people aren't supposed to be able to see this." she said. "You have been an unending fountain of surprises, Shizuki." she deftly pulled a pistol out from behind her shield, rapidly emptying the clip into the door before Hitomi had time to object. Luckily, the bullets did not ricochet. Akemi dropped the clip and reloaded in under a second, but Hitomi put a hand on her sholder.

"The door isn't even scratched." Hitomi said, putting her hand against the slightly blackened patch where Akemi had shot, feeling the still smooth metal below. "There's no point in wasting your ammunition."

As if in opposition to her statement, there was a sharp burst of gunfire from what sounded like fairly far away, but Hitomi couldn't be sure, as it would depend on how well the rooms here were soundproofed. The reports of this onslaught hit a steady beat of fifteen shots per second, seeming to suggest an automatic weapon of some sort. It continued for about ten seconds before ending. After about five seconds, a single shot rang out from the opposite direction.

"So, there are at least two other groups trapped with us." Akemi said. "This is good to know."

"We still don't have any plan better than wait, though." Hitomi said. "No use fretting over it. We'd just be wildly guessing at this point. We should just wait and see what happens."

Akeim paused, looking at Hitomi. "And you do not have any questions?"

"What, about your magic?" Hitomi said. "I knew you could do something, so it's not that surprising to me. I figure if you want to tell me, you will."

Akemi sighed. "You have a very laid back attitude, Shizuki."

"Watching and waiting quietly has advantages." Hitomi said.

The two girls sat next to each other silently, the countdown slowly but surely ticking down to zero. When it reached 010 Akemi stood up, and Hitomi followed her to stand by the door.

"Be prepared. There could be hostiles right outside." Akemi said. "Stay behind me." Hitomi nodded.

"For the future, I am capable of holding myself in a battle." Hitomi said. "But now's not the time to mess with any plans you have."

The counter hit 000. There was a beep, and the light turned green. Silently, the door slid open sideways, revealing a well lit empty hallway outside. Directly across from them, a room marked with a large number 4 sat, its door sliding open a few seconds after theirs. A girl about their age, with short brown hair and brown eyes, stuck her head out from the doorway.

"Hey, you!" she called to Akemi, who stepped out of the doorway slowly. Hitomi followed, looking around. The hallway wasn't very long, holding only six rooms total, three on each side. The door to the room marked 5 was slowly sliding open now, while the door marked 6 was still closed. Rooms 1 and 2 were open as well, but no one else seemed to have exited their rooms yet, and Hitomi couldn't see inside of them from her position. Looking briefly behind her, she was unsurprised to find that the room she and Akemi had been in was marked with a 3.

"What do you want?" Akemi said flatly. Another girl with short black hair and a flower encrusted headband poked her head out from behind the brown haired one nervously.

"I was just wondering if you knew what was up here." the girl said. "From your response, I'm guessing that's a no."

"Indeed." Akemi said. "Though we are just as interested in escaping as you are, I assure you."

"Um, Misaka..." the black haired girl said, pulling on her lightly. "There's a purple pony walking out of door 2."

Everyone trained their heads towards door 2, where, indeed, a purple pony was exiting, seeming to eye the four of them wearily. "What... are you?" it asked, and everyone except Akemi took a sharp step backwards. The pony lowered its backside slightly, looking at them with wide eyes, seeming to be attempting to appear as non threatening as possible. "I don't mean you any harm." she said, obviously trying to inject as much calm into her voice as she could manage. Hitomi noticed that this pony was equipped with wings and a horn.

"Humans." A singsong, beautiful voice said from inside the room, and a much larger, aquamarine horse with wings and horn stepped out from the door. It had to duck to make it out. "They're intelligent, and usually fairly reasonable. There's no need to be so wary."

There was a bang, and a gray haired girl rushed out of room 5, fear clear in her metallic silver eyes. A laugh, filled with clear evil insanity, came from inside. "Oh, come on, Mimi. I'm just having a little fun." it said sweetly. "I didn't get to taste your blood last time, you know."

The girl, presumably Mimi, turned to the six others. "Close that door." she said shakily. "Don't let her out."

"Let me out of what?" An older girl, perhaps sixteen, with long pure white hair and blood red eyes, stepped over the threshold of room 5 and into the hall. "That little room? Oh, Mimi, that isn't very nice." she giggled lightly. "I was just playing around."

Mimi looked up at the other people, her face flushed with fear. She seemed to be very slightly startled at the two technicolor ponies, but was far too frightened right now to care. Slowly, she turned around to face the other girl.

"I-" she said shakily. "I won't let you hurt anyone else." Mimi drew a metallic sphere from her pocket.

"What, you're going to stop me?" the white haired girl said. "Sounds like fun. I wonder how much you've improved in the three years we've been apart." she licked her lips. "Though I doubt it will be enough, you know."

Deftly, Mimi flicked the sphere into the air, extending her arm to meet it as it returned to earth. Misaka seemed shocked, her eyes going wide before trying to turn away. Hitomi was confused.

There was a flash of light, a streak of blue-white energy slamming into the girl across the room faster than Hitomi could blink. The burst hurt her eyes. The sound of cracking glass was heard, then the light died, the girl across the room untouched, laughing softly.

"How cute!" she said. "You made it almost a tenth of the way through my shield this time."

"Is she really that dangerous?" Misaka said, tapping Mimi on the shoulder. Mimi nodded, looking into her eyes. After a moment, Misika turned away.

"Alright." Misika drew a coin from her pocket, flicking it into the air. In a very similar motion to Mimi, she made contact. This time, the streak of light was at least ten times as bright, sparks flying in all directions from the channel of energy. Hitomi had to turn away. There was more noises like shattering glass, but as the light faded, the girl was still untouched.

"Oh, wow. Mimi, I think you've been shown up." the girl said. "That one made it nearly half way."

Misaka let out a sharp breath, lowering herself, drawing into a combat stance. Mimi, however, had turned towards her and was blinking slowly.

"You're..." she said, awe in her voice. "Misaka Mikoto, aren't you."

"Really not the time." Misaka said, her eyes trained on the white haired girl.

Hitomi dropped into a combat stance as well, queuing a few quick attack spells in an array before her. The black haired girl with the flower band took a step back. The purple and aquamarine ponies took a step forward, their horns glowing. Mimi turned away from Misaka and looked back at the white haired girl.

Akemi extended her shield, activated the mechanism, and appeared in front of the girl, her gun jammed inside her mouth. Her arm reached around the back of the girls head, stopping her from withdrawing. The girl squeaked.

"Target neutralized." Akemi said.

"Hold on..." Mimi said. "Wait. Are you... Akemi Homura?" she turned around briefly. "Yeah, and you're Uiharu Kazari, and you're Shizuki Hitomi." Mimi shook her head. "Great. I must be dreaming." she glanced at the white haired girl. "Or having a nightmare, more likely."

"I think it's safe to come out now." A very young voice said from room 6. "It looks like the fighting is over." From room 6, an eleven year old version of herself appeared, and Hitomi blinked in surprise. She was followed by an eighteenish looking blond girl with indecently large breasts, who was caring what looked like a heavy machine gun.

"Sorry that we didn't help." the older girl said apologetically. "But we weren't sure what side to take."

"Urmuaph!" the white haired girl said around Akemi's gun.

"Um..." Everyone turned around, seeing a deep-red haired girl with blood-red highlights in what appeared to be a red cape stepped out of room 1. "Hi?" she said lamely. A blond haired older boy stuck his head out from behind the door, smiling with an obviously fake grin and waving at them. Hitomi looked at the girl with some confusion. How had she managed to hold on to the cape? She was in the jumpsuit like everyone else, but she seemed to be the only one who had been able to keep any of their original clothing.

Seriously, was that what she was going to concentrate on? There were more important things here.

"Okay, okay, wait." the purple unicorn-pony with wings looked around at everyone. "Look, perhaps we should introduce ourselves, seeing as we're all stuck here together. We're going to need to cooperate to get out of here, I'm sure, and I think it would be best if we had an idea of who everyone was."

"Yeah, set some ground work." the older blond haired girl nodded.

No one said anything, except for a few grunts and muffled sounds from the white haired girl. After a moment, the purple pony shook her head and stepped forward. "Alright, because I suggested it, I'll go first. My name is Twilight Sparkle. I'm a 22 year old alicorn from Ponyville. If possible, I'd like to be friends with as many of you as I can."

"Heh." the larger aquamarine alicorn took a step forward as Twilight stepped back. "My name is Spring. I'm a 6,253 year old alicorn, currently without a home. I intend to get out of here, and if you don't get in my way I don't have any reason to hurt you."

"Well, uh, my name is Ruby Rose." The caped girl said. "I come from the city of Vale. I'm with Twilight on the whole friend thing." she smiled awkwardly at the others.

"I'm Jaune Arc." the guy said. "Also from Vale. I have to warn you, I'm a bit of a lady killer." Ruby elbowed him lightly in the stomach. He shook his head. "Geez, it was a joke."

"My name is Mimi." Mimi said, looking around at the faces of all the others. "I'm 13, currently on the run. From her, among other things." she pointed at the white haired girl. "That is Crystal. She is the definition of evil. She's completely emotionally dead, almost unstoppable, and more than a little bit insane." Mimi looked at Akemi. "Honestly, I'm surprised you're not dead yet."

Akemi shrugged. "I do not die easily." she looked at the others blankly. "My name is Akemi Homura. I am 14, from Mitakihara city. I do not usually work with other people well, but I try to keep my relationships neutral if I can."

"My name is Shizuki Hitomi." Hitomi said, bowing lightly. "I come from Mitakihara city, and I'm 13 years old. It's a pleasure to meet you all!"

Her younger clone stepped forward. "My name is Lilly. I'm 11 years old and currently mobile. I just want to get out of here, but working as a group makes us stronger, so I urge you all to put aside your differences and join together if you can." she paused. "Perhaps not Crystal." Crystal harrumphed.

The blond eighteen year old stepped forward. "My name is Star. I'm 18 years old, and part of Lilly's little survivor group. Point me at the enemy and tell me to fire." she giggled, brandishing her machine gun, which must have weighed at least one hundred pounds, like it was a pistol.

Misaka shook her head and stepped forward. "My name is Misaka Mikoto. I'm 14, from Academy city. I'm really not sure what we're doing the declarative statements at the end for." she threw her hair, a few sparks of electricity zapping into the air.

"Uh..." Uiharu took a deep breath, then stepped forward. "My name is Uiharu Kazari. I'm 13, from Academy city. I'm not very good at fighting, and I don't really have much power, but I'll do my best to help where I can."

"So that's all of us." Twilight said. "All twelve."

"What do we do first?" Star asked. "I don't see any way out of this corridor."

"We should secure Crystal first." Mimi said harshly. "I'm sure Akemi doesn't want to be holding her like that forever."

"Does anyone have any rope?" Ruby asked. "Or chain, or clamps, or something?"

"Wermegraph!" Crystal spat. "Ermatargr Prorgraman Orgothorp." she rolled her eyes. Hitomi noticed thin blue blades extend slowly from her fingernails.

"Akemi, watch out!" Hitomi yelled. Akemi turned to her, then her eyes went blank. Her torso cleanly disconnected from the rest of her body, the blood spraying wildly across the room, pooling around her rapidly as she crumpled lifeless to the floor. None of the blood actually got on Crystal, her invisible force shield catching it and vaporizing it slowly. She did lick a drop off of the end of her glowing magical blades, her expression completely innocent.

"As I was saying," she started, as if nothing had happened, "there is another digital counter over the door on the far end of the hallway, currently counting down from 240. I think we're going to be released then." she smiled at the others. "Thought you might like to know."

No one moved. Crystal sighed.

"Why are you all looking at me like that?" she said. "She started it."

"You weren't kidding." Ruby said flatly.

"No, I wasn't." Mimi said.

"Oh, come on. Even I realize I can't get out of here alone. Do you think that I would be stupid enough to kill the people I need to escape?" Crystal said, retracting her blades and putting her thumb to her lips, looking at them with a cute, scared girl look. "I'm just misunderstood, that's all."

"No, you wouldn't be stupid enough." Mimi said. "You'd know exactly what you were doing and do it anyway, because you can't help yourself. How many people have met you and lived, Crystal?"

"Let's see... there's Orion, you, uh... Ruby..." Crystal paused. "So, three." she sighed. "Just because I kill everyone I meet doesn't make me a bad person."

"And you thought I was evil." Spring said to Twilight.

"You _are_ evil." Twilight shot back. "Just not insane."

"So, let's see." Crystal said. "The only person capable of stopping me is dead now, and the rest of you hate me." she gave them a sad look. "I don't think we're going to be friends, Ruby Rose, Twilight Sparkle. I hate to do this so soon, but I haven't had real fun in a while. Humans are so weak, you understand. It's no fun with them. But you've gathered ten super-humans here for me." she cocked her head slightly. "Try to make this fun for me, okay?"

Spring burst out laughing. Crystal looked at her. "What?" she said.

"Only person that can stop you?" Spring laughed. "I will admit, time control makes it easy, but... honey, I'm a goddess. You don't stand a chance against me."

"Oh, I love it when they think they're better than me!" Crystal said. "I can tell you're going to be very fun for me!"

"Er, no." Spring's horn flashed, and Crystal was hit with a wave of aquamarine energy, passing through her shield without issue. "You flinched from the heat of Misaka's electromagnetic pulse cannon. That pretty barrier of yours only blocks physical attacks."

Crystal grunted, but didn't move. After a short while, she sighed. "Paralysis, right?"

"Yep. Should last about six hours." Spring said. Crystal rolled her eyes.

Hitomi rushed over to Akemi. She didn't like the girl, sure, but she didn't want her to die if she could help it. Her mind flashed to Derick's face, and she shook her head. There had been too much death already.

Unfortunately, there wasn't really anything Hitomi could do. It hadn't been any kind of optical effect, and it wasn't a result of shock. Akemi lay in two pieces, sliced down fully through the middle. The cut was clean, less than a millimeter thick, splitting her at the waist, the disruption so quick that no blood had splashed onto her stomach or face. There wasn't any need to take a pulse or vitals. She was very obviously dead.

"I'm..." Ruby walked up to Hitomi, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You must have known her, right?" she said softly. "There aren't any words, I know, but... I'm so sorry, Shizuki."

"It's okay." Hitomi said, choking back tears. "She was my enemy." A tear dripped from her eye. "I didn't know her very well."

"She's going to be okay." Mimi said. "Crystal didn't hit her soul gem."

Hitomi looked at her, confused. Mimi shook her head. "Oh yeah, that's right, you don't actually become a magical girl. Sorry, it's been so long since I watched Madoka Magica. You see that purple gemstone she has on her shield? It's called a soul gem. As long as it doesn't get destroyed, she can't die." Mimi put an hand to her chin. "Though, in the series, none of the Puella Magi actually get torn in half, so I have no idea how this is going to work."

As if on cue, Akemi's soul gem began to glow with purple fire, and her body became encased in light. The light grew brighter and brighter, until Hitomi was forced to look away. The glow continued for a good few seconds longer, and Hitomi saw the others slowly turn away as well. There was a brief, brilliant flash, and then the light died.

"That never happened before." Akemi said, getting to her feet. She glanced at her soul gem. "And it looks like it cost me nearly a quarter of my power in one go." she looked around at the others. "Does anyone know where I might wash this blood off?"

"Time control and resurrection." Spring said. "Now, that's just unfair."

"Just wait until after Rebellion." Mimi said. "Then she'll be all-powerful, all-knowing, and capable of rewriting reality at will."

"Oh, wonderful." Spring said, rolling her eyes.

"How do you know these things?" Uiharu asked Mimi. "You recognized Misaka and me as well, right?"

"Er..." Mimi said, giving them a sheepish grin. "Where I come from... and, please, really, don't take this the wrong way... you are characters in a show I watched. You and Misaka are from the show 'A Certain Scientific Railgun'; Hitomi and Homura are from 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica'; Ruby and Jaune are from 'Rwby'. I think I've seen Twilight around on things, but I never watched that show. Spring, Lilly, and Star are entirely unknown to me."

"What do you mean, characters from a show?" Ruby said. "I'm totally real."

"Yeah, I know." Mimi said. "I mean, I have some of Homura's blood on me, and I got to feel the heat of the Railgun's railgun." her eyes glossed over and she stared wistfully at Misaka for a moment, until she started giving her weird looks. Mimi shook her head. "This is very clearly real. But you're also fictional characters."

"I mean, we're obviously in an alternate universe." Spring said. "In fact, the twelve of us are from six different universes." she looked around at the rest of them. "This is basic quantum mechanics. Multiple worlds interpretation. Everything that could exists does exist in some universe. The plot of every story actually happened, in some world, somewhere in the multiverse."

"So, wait, are you saying that we are fictional?" Hitomi said, confused.

"No, no." Spring shook her head. "It's not that. Writing a fictional work doesn't make it real, it just happens that no matter what you write, it already exists. Every narrative happens to, due to probability, describe the happenings of one world, but it doesn't cause them."

Everyone looked at Spring blankly. She sighed.

"Okay, imagine you have three thousand coins. You toss them into groups of three, making one thousand groups of coins. In a different room, your best friend writes down that there is a pile of coins in the next room reading heads, heads, tails. If they walked into the room, they would almost certainly find at least one pile with that combination. In fact, it would be horribly unlikely for them to find less than one hundred piles with that combination. But, even though what they wrote down did describe what happened in the piles, they didn't make it happen, or effect it in any way. Those piles are like the different universes in the multiverse. And the description of the coins faces are stories you write. It's not that the stories you write make universes. It's that universes exist that are like any story you write, no matter how crazy it is."

"There would need to be an awfully large number of universes for that to work." Hitomi said. "I'd imagine you'd need more than a google, or even that 10 to the 500th number that they've been throwing around recently. I've always had issues with this interpretation of the multiverse for that reason. There are just too many possible combinations, and the numbers the equations give are too low to actually let that work."

"Well," Spring cocked her head, nodding around at the group. "I have predictive evidence."

"You... followed that?" Ruby asked Hitomi.

"I've always been considered intelligent." Hitomi said. "Besides, I like science fiction. I'm very familiar with multiverse theory."

"What... was that?" Twilight asked Spring. "When did you have the time to learn these things?"

"Twilight, Progress dreamed up quantum mechanics over fifteen hundred years ago. Your civilization is still playing catchup." Spring said. "I've had plenty of time."

"Speaking of time," Lilly said flatly, "the counter just hit fifteen seconds."

Everyone turned to face the door. Indeed, the counter now displayed 013. A quiet tension built. Everyone looked at the still closed door, hoping that their reason for being here, and method of escape, would be soon revealed. No one said a word and it ticked slowly down.

"You're all just going to leave me here, aren't you." Crystal said lamely.

The counter hit 000, and like their room doors, the end of the hall slowly slid open. A man in a suit stood beyond it, a smile plastered on his face.

"I hope you've managed to use the provided time to get used to each other." The man said, looking in at them. His eyes flickered to the paralyzed Crystal, Star's machine gun, and Akemi's blood soaked dress before returning to a neutral position. "I see that it has been a rather exciting five minutes."

"Who are you, and what do you want with us?" Akemi said flatly.

"I am your guide, tasked with leading you to the arena." he said, his smile never fading. "And you have been selected to participate in the 66th centennial multiversal games!" a clap track played, though it was impossible to tell where the sound was coming from. "It's a great honor, and you should all be proud of yourselves! You have an opportunity to represent your universe and earn great rewards beyond imagining. If, that is, you manage to pass the qualifier. Which is what I will be taking you to presently!" he spun on his heal and started walking out. No one followed him. After a moment, he turned around. "Food and water will not be provided, and the only way out is by cooperation. You will not be forced to do anything, but we would appreciate it if you would comply with us. It is much less entertaining to watch you die of thirst."

"Well, when you put it that way..." Misaka said, walking out through the doorway. After a slight hesitation, the others followed.

"And you?" the man asked Crystal. "Will you not participate?"

"I'm paralyzed." she said flatly. "I can't walk."

"Oh, dear." he shook his head. "Well, it's the spirit that counts, they always say." he pointed his hand at her, and Crystal floated off of the ground, drawn in to the group. "Now, follow me!" he resumed his walk, the others exchanging looks between themselves.

The walk wasn't very long. They stepped through seven sets of corridors which looked essentially identical to their own, then out into a lobby. As soon as they entered, the man turned around to face them.

"Unfortunately, due to an increase in the total available universes to provide contestants, the 66th multiversal games have approximately twice as many candidates as it has spaces. As such, it has become necessary to include a preliminary round in order to put our contestant pool back to normal size." The man said.

"Couldn't you have just taken one person from each universe?" Star asked. "After all, if you have about twice too many people, and you're taking two from each, it seems that there is a simple solution here."

"No, no! That would have been unfair. We do only select people from the top 1% of individuals in any universe to attempt to keep things fairly balanced, but choosing two makes it much more likely that one of the two will be fit for the games. It is supposed to be entertaining, after all, so we do our best to make sure everyone has a fighting chance."

"So, what, the twelve of us are going to go into the arena, and you're going to open the door when there are six of us left?" Twilight said. "That's horrible."

"No, not at all." the man shook his head. "First off, you'll be in teams of two. Usually, we team people from the same universe together, but it was decided that this century we would use random assignment for the teams, to make it more fair for everyone. Secondly, as I said, this is supposed to be entertaining. Nothing is more overdone than a simple death battle. No, we have a fun game for you twelve to play."

"In advance, I'm sorry for whoever gets paired with Crystal." Mimi said.

"What game?" Ruby asked.

"On the far end of the enclosure, there is a golden dragon who holds keys to the exit in its lair. Retrieve the keys, and use them to open the door you entered to pass." he said. "Very simple."

"And, let me guess, there are only three keys?" Lilly said. "And the door closes once two people go through?"

"Exactly!" he said. "Now, girls, I'm sorry to have to do this to you. Usually, our contestants are eighteen plus, but it looks like only three of you manage that. But the rules are the rules, and I'm not allowed to change them. Even for an eleven year old, as much as it breaks my heart." the man didn't sound particularly torn up about it. "The enclosure is about thirty-five kilometers across, so this is expected to take about two days to complete. You will all be provided three days food and water." the man snapped, and a backpack appeared on everyone's back, much to Twilight and Spring's discomfort.

"I can fly that in about thirty minutes." Twilight said, shaking off the constricting bag. "Fifteen if I really push it."

"Then you have quite an advantage, don't you?" the man said. "I would advise the others to break her wings as soon as they can. After all, if she claims one key-set in the first hour, all of your odds go down.

Silence fell over the group.

"This is for real, isn't it." Uiharu said, beginning to breath harder. "We're really here, and we're really going to die if we don't win this."

"Yes." the man said. "Sorry for the wake up call, sweetie."

Crystal giggled and licked her lips. "Just as a question, what happens if, say, I were to kill everyone?" she asked innocently. "Just hypothetically."

"Then your team would progress, and no others would. It's okay for us to be under capacity." the man said, and Crystal sighed.

"No, I mean everyone. You know, my team mate as well." she said.

"Teams are allowed to continue with a single member." the man said.

Crystal grinned. "Oh, this is going to be so much fun!"

"Are their any more questions?" the man asked. No one said a word. "Alright then. I will begin assigning teams now."

An apparatus which looked very much like a large slot machine with only two windows lowered down from the ceiling. The man tugged the lever, and the windows turned rapidly. After a few seconds, a print out ejected from the prize slot, which he caught. "The first team will be... Mimi and Misaka!"

Mimi and Misaka's silver bands turned green, and a number 1 appeared above them, spinning slowly. Mimi's eyes went wide.

"Oh. My. God!" she squealed, and Misaka rolled her eyes.

"The second team will be... Twilight and Shizuki!" the man said.

Twilight and Hitomi's bands turned red, and a number 2 appeared above them. Twilight turned to Hitomi, smiling.

"Glad to see that I'm stuck with one of the reasonable ones." she said.

"Yeah, me too." Hitomi returned.

"The third team will be... Crystal and Spring!" the man said, eying the two of them.

Crystal and Spring's bands turned blue.

Spring sighed heavily. "Well, if anyone was going to be stuck with her, I'm the best option."

"Now that we're on a team, will you take that paralysis spell off me?" Crystal asked. Spring gave her a long look. "I didn't think so." she said dejectedly.

"The fourth team will be... Uiharu and Jaune!"

Uiharu and Jaune's bands turned pink.

"Um, I'll do my best." Uiharu said sheepishly.

"Yeah, that was what I was going to say." Jaune said, looking around nervously.

"The fifth team will be... Akemi and Ruby!"

Akemi and Ruby's bands turned yellow.

"Um, you seem like one of those serious types who doesn't like anyone." Ruby said, laughing nervously. Akemi gave her a flat, emotionless stare.

"Whatever would give you that idea." she said in a perfect monotone.

"Right..." Ruby looked down at her shoes.

"And that leaves Lilly and Star as the sixth team!" the man said, putting down the sheet of paper.

Lilly and Star's bands turned white.

"Well, it had to happen once." Star said. "Just another wasteland full of hostiles to cross. We have plenty of practice."

"I've always trusted you." Lilly said. "We'll make it through this too."

"Well, now that the teams have been assigned, I think we're ready to go!" the man said. "Let the games begin!" there was a sound like a pneumatic system activating, and a large opening formed in the far wall. "Good luck to all our contestants!"

There was a squelching noise, and an irresistible wind whipped up, pulling the twelve inside and scattering them wildly across the inside of the arena, throwing some of them as far a a kilometer from the entrance. After about ten seconds, the door slammed shut behind them.

"Oof." Twilight said, getting up from where she had planted into the floor. "That was... one way of doing it."

"I don't think they exactly have our comfort in mind." Hitomi told her, removing herself from the tree she had been flung into and alighting onto the ground with a quick featherfall spell.

"Okay. So, we're on a team." Twilight said. "Perhaps we should discuss capabilities?"

"Sure." Hitomi said, rubbing her aching shoulder. "That sounds like a good plan. You want to go first?"

"Fine." Twilight said. "I'm a goddess." Hitomi coughed briefly with surprise, and Twilight took a step back, giving her a reassuring look. "I'm a very kind goddess." she said. "I don't tend to think of myself as anything other than simply stronger than other people. And I don't intend on claiming any divine right of leadership or something asinine like that. But that is technically what I am, scientifically speaking."

"Scientifically..." Hitomi said, then shook her head. "You come from an interesting world. Well, I guess the talking pony should have tipped me off to that one, actually."

"I have a huge amount of magical power, the ability to fly, the ability to control the weather, and class-II immortality." Twilight continued. "How about you?"

"I'm a spectral witch." Hitomi said. "Specifically, I'm the green witch in Alice's spectrum."

"Wait, you're a witch?" Twilight said, looking shocked for a moment before shaking her head. "I'm sorry. Where I come from, witchcraft had strongly negative connotations."

"It does where I come from as well." Hitomi said. "As far as I can tell, Alice and I are the exceptions, not the rule. Most witches seem to be fairly evil, from how other people react."

"So, what can you do?" Twilight asked. Hitomi looked down.

"Not all that much, actually. I know about fifty utility spells and four combat spells, none of which I'm very good with." Hitomi said. "I've only been a witch for about two weeks."

"Oh." Twilight said. "Well, that's okay. I'll keep you safe, don't worry. With me around, the only person we really need to worry about is Spring, and she'll likely just leave us alone."

"I don't know." Hitomi said. "Akemi is pretty scary, from what I've seen. Then there's those two railgun girls working together. And I wouldn't like to be in front of Star's machine gun either, if I can help it. Most of our opponents are pretty dangerous, from what it looked like."

"Yeah, but the rest of them looked like they were... well, if not good, definitely not evil." Twilight said. "I think we can count on them to not try to hurt us."

"What?" Hitomi said. "No, hold on. Only half of us are getting out of here. Everyone else is our enemy." Hitomi paused. "Though, honestly, I can't really see myself being willing to fight most of the others."

"That's exactly it." Twilight said. "I don't know about you, but I wouldn't like my escape to doom two others." Hitomi paused, then nodded after a moment.

"You're right. We have to save everyone. The other contestants aren't our enemies, the people running the show are." Hitomi agreed. "Why should we play their game?"

"As you said, everyone here seems fairly dangerous." Twilight said. "If we can get the ten of us to work together... or even the eleven, as Spring's probably likely to want revenge on whoever set this up... we'll be quite the team."

"I'm pretty sure it's not going to be that easy." Hitomi said. "We've been set in opposition, and fighting the people who set this up is going to be hard. It's going to take a little work to convince everyone to join forces when such a clear end goal is present and by far the easier path to success."

"But, as you said, we have to try. I'm not willing to hurt others for my own gain." Twilight said. "Besides, the rest of them looked like fairly good people. It shouldn't be that hard."

"So, we're going to break out of here? That's the plan from the beginning?" Hitomi asked. After a moment, she smiled. "Sounds good to me. Let's save everyone."

Twilight blinked at her for a moment."I'm surprised, actually." she said. "Most of the time, I'm much more willing to risk myself for others than most ponies I know." she gave Hitomi a nudge. "It's good. I don't mind not having to convince you."

Hitomi giggled. "Great, they stuck the two optimistic heroines together! With our combined powers of cute and plot armor, we can't be stopped!"

"So, we need a plan." Twilight said. "Our first order of business is collecting all of the people together and convincing them to join us. The issue, of course, is finding them."

"No it's not." Hitomi said, shaking her head. "Remember, we're all headed to the same place. We already have a meeting location. All we need to do is get there first, and we'll meet everyone as they arrive."

"I'm not so sure." Twilight said. "Think about it. It's going to take most of them a full day to cross that distance, then another full day to cross back. We only have the supplies for three days. And beyond that, well, quite frankly I don't have two days to spare. My country is in peril right now, and I'm one of the few ponies who can save it. Being absent for two days at a time like this... my absence could conceivably lead to the deaths of fifty, sixty, even seventy thousand ponies. While I agree that your method would be the simplest, I really don't have the time."

"Seventy thousand?" Hitomi said, shocked. "That's horrible. You're right, if that's the case we need to get this done as soon as possible."

"The problem is that I can't think of a good method." Twilight said. "I could take to the air, but the canopy is too thick for that to be too effective. I can tell where Spring is from her power signature, but I'm not sure we want to go to her first. None of the others have a energy signature I can detect."

"Okay..." Hitomi nodded briefly. "I might be able to find Akemi and Ruby by concentrating on Akemi's aura... but I've never tried something like this before, and it might not work."

"You do that, and I'll fly up and see if I'm lucky enough to see anything." Twilight said. Hitomi nodded. "Good luck."

Twilight spread her wings, and Hitomi closed her eyes, looking for wisps of familiar feeling.

There was a sound like rolling thunder, and a flash of brilliant light interrupted the two before they could proceed. Briefly, they turned to each other. After about three seconds of silence, as if instructed from above, the two in unison began to run towards the light.

"I think we might have found our Gaussian girls." Hitomi said.

"You think?" Twilight agreed. There was another flash of light, closer this time. Twilight's horn began to glow. "Though, the question becomes, what are they shooting at? And why did they have to shoot twice?"

"Right." Hitomi said, activating her spells and beginning combat preparation. Out of habit, she tapped where her belt would have been, and to her surprise, she drew her sword magically from thin air. Then again, Star had been allowed to keep a machine gun, so this wasn't that unexpected.

There was a rustling, and Twilight and Hitomi entered a clearing in the woods. It was a strange clearing, the trees bending up and around them, keeping the canopy solid while the space beneath the bows was fully open to them. Standing on the far end of the clearing were the two girls, Mimi and Misaka, standing combat ready, waves of lightning cascading around them. Mimi turned to them as they approached, and she flexed her hand, pointing at them. Hitomi had just enough time to duck out of the way as a ball bearing whipped past her head at 100 m/s. Twilight took a step forward.

"Hey! We're not your enemy!" Twilight called. "We just want to-"

Mimi threw her arm across, and three more bearings shot off in their direction. Meanwhile, Misaka took a step back, summoning a series of electric strikes to combat what looked like living shadows.

Twilight didn't react in time. She was too naive, Hitomi guessed, and hadn't expected the attack. Luckily, she was ready for it, quickly hitting the bolts with a net of green power, anchoring them to the ground with relative ease. "Move!" she instructed Twilight. "We're in combat!" she popped her three bolt spells which she had saved up, providing cover as she tugged the four times as massive Twilight out of harms way. After about a second of being stunned, Twilight snapped out of it, following Hitomi into the cover of the woods while casting a purple shield around them, managing to deflect another bearing strike before they safely passed out of sight.

"Why..." Twilight said, out of breath as they stopped running some few meters outside of the clearing, still close enough to get glimpses of the fight.

"Twilight, this is apparently a hard concept for you to grasp, but good people sometimes fight with each other." Hitomi said. "Very rarely in a battle is there a side of obvious good and obvious evil. When goals conflict, two people, both working towards a greater good, can come to blows. I told you, it wouldn't be quite as easy as you thought."

"Is this a human thing?" Twilight said. "Ponies I know never fight, unless they're acting directly for only their own gain. If you're good, you're good. The worse that happens is that two good ponies don't work together because one is putting their effort elsewhere."

"Well," Hitomi said, dropping the point, "perhaps they just didn't have time to think. They were in a battle, remember? Regardless, it makes sense for us to wait, one way or the other, until they're not currently in combat."

"Fine." Twilight said, but Hitomi could tell she was uneasy. Perhaps she had been projecting a little, after all. Twilight was a different species, and just because she acted mostly human didn't mean her brain worked the same way. The idea of conflicting sides of an event both being justified in some way might truly be a foreign concept to her. For a second, Hitomi let her mind drift into thinking of exactly what kind of world Twilight must have come from to get this outlook, and then she saw Twilight's horn glow and the shadow of something from the forest cover her.

"Ah!" Hitomi cried, then regained her composure, preparing to defend herself and her companion. To her surprise, Twilight had already sprung into action, bolts of purple energy lighting up the ground around them as she threw her awesome power into the fray. The creature screamed out in terrible agony, then dispersed into wind and fading darkness. There was a chill like death, and Hitomi turned to face five more of the creatures. She flashed her pentagrams, summoning her spectral blades to protect her as she held her physical blade at the ready. They seemed to have sufficient force to keep the creatures at bay, but not nearly enough to destroy them as Twilight had. Hitomi was forced into a slow retreat.

Twilight followed her, fighting a small host herself. It wasn't long before they were pushed back into the clearing, though by then Twilight had managed to kill four of hers and was beginning to give Hitomi support. Hitomi briefly allowed herself a glance at the other two girls. Her eyes met Misaka's first this time, and she gave her a little nod.

"Form up!" Hitomi yelled, and Twilight broke combat and followed her retreat to the other girls. Mimi turned towards them, but Misaka tapped her briefly on the shoulder, and she held her attack, instead turning back to support the older girl with the creatures. Misaka and Mimi moved towards them slowly, and the four met somewhere about two thirds of the way across the clearing. The creatures stepped in from all sides, surrounding them.

"On three, everyone goes hard." Misaka said. "Ready?"

Hitomi nodded.

"1..." the creatures closed in on them, gathering into groups to prepare their attack. Hitomi counted twenty or so total, though blessedly no more seemed to be coming from the woods. "2..." they snarled at them, and Hitomi felt fear begin to crawl into her, turning to energy as she used it to trigger her form shift. "3!" Misaka yelled, and chaos erupted. The first row of creatures lunged forward, being caught mid-air by a wave of purple energy as Twilight scattered omnidirectional blasts. Hitomi burst into form three, the nearest creature simply vaporized by her light as she quickly drew three score of spectral blades to hold the perimeter. A second of delay, and two twin bursts of brilliant light scattered through the creatures, punching holes clear through eight of them all combined. Mimi took the space cleared by Hitomi as an opportunity, leaping over the other girls and slamming into the ground with a shock, sending whirling spikes of ferrite soil in rippling coils out from her point of impact. Hitomi cast a wide net of energy out, trapping four of the creatures beneath her power. With a sharp constriction, they burst into dust. Misaka lit up the surrounding area with lightning, frying everything farther than five meters from her without regard. The electricity arced between the creatures as they one by one shattered into flaming soot. By the time Twilight had finished providing the others with shields and was ready for her next attack, everything was dead.

Hitomi turned around to see a ball bearing floating only a few centimeters from her head, gasping involuntarily. Twilight gasped as well.

"Mimi, no." Misaka said.

"They're the enemy." Mimi said. "I don't want to hurt them, but..."

"Why don't we work together, then?" Twilight asked pleadingly. "No one wants to hurt anyone else here. We all have a common enemy, the people who set this horrible trial into motion. We should be fighting out against them, not each other!"

"You two want to take down the establishment?" Misaka said. "I think that makes us three to one."

"But..." Mimi started.

"Yes, it means we as individuals have a lower chance of success." Twilight said. "But I'm not willing to win at the cost of consigning other people to death, not unless there is no other option. Until I have exhausted every other possibility, even ones with risks associated with them, I will not be willing to let my self-preservation guide me."

"Mimi." Misaka said. "You said I was your hero because I never stopped fighting against things I thought were wrong, and never stopped trying to help other people even when it put myself at risk." she looked at her. "This is your chance to join us in that."

"Urg!" Mimi said, kicking at the dirt. There was a ripple and the dirt hissed lightly and changed color. "Fine. I'll be a hero, for today only." she said. "This isn't really my style." she gave them a solemn look. "It's gotten too many of my friends killed."

"We won't be one of them." Hitomi said, giving her a reassuring look. "We all have far too important things to be doing. We can't stop now."

"So, where do we head next?" Twilight said. "I have some ideas, but now that I'm one of two 'natural leaders' in our collection, I feel it would be best if I don't try to take control all the time."

"Hey." Hitomi said, and Twilight put one of her hooves up in protest, standing in a manor which Hitomi would have assumed impossible if asked.

"No offense, Shizuki." she said. "But it's true, you don't seem to be that suited to taking charge of situations. You're capable when you need to, which is more than I can say for most, but you don't naturally aspire to it."

Hitomi paused, then sighed. "Yeah, that's fair."

"See? Exactly what I mean." Twilight said. "It's not a problem. If everyone tries to lead, then nothing gets done."

"So, well, leader, what should we do?" Misaka said dryly. "We need to find and convince the others, obviously, but you sounded like you had some more thought though plan."

"Um..." Twilight sat down. "No, actually. That's as far as I got."

"Great." Misaka sighed. "Well, we should get moving before any more of those things show up. We made enough noise and light for Shizuki and Twilight to find us, so you can bet we alerted plenty of other people, too. We can talk on the move."

"_Sounds good to me._" Twilight said telepathically. "_I've created a telepathic network for us. It should work at short ranges, and make us much more quiet._"

_"I'll keep watch behind us." _Hitomi said. "_You two, there isn't a trick to it. Just think. It'll take a few seconds to get used to, but trust me, it's the most natural thing in the worlds once you've become accustomed."_

_ "Is this right?"_ Misaka asked.

_"Yep, receiving you on all channels." _Twilight indicated.

_"HOW ABOUT ME?" _Mimi said, her voice amplified considerably.

_"No need to concentrate that hard." _Hitomi said. "_You're going to give me a headache."_

_ "Sorry." _Mimi said sheepishly. _"I knew a telepath once, and we always had to yell in our heads for him to read it."_

_ "It's all okay." _Twilight said. "_These things always have a learning curve."_

_ "So, follow me, I guess." _Misaka indicated, and the others followed slowly through the woods after her.

They walked through the forest arena with little trouble, making fairly good time as they searched for the other parties. Twice more they ran into the shadow creatures, but they acted quickly enough to avoid drawing attention to themselves, keeping their combat and energy expenditures at a minimum. Nothing of much importance happened as they endeavored to cover as much ground as they could.

After about two hours march, the four girls decided to take a break in a small clearing, sitting down in a small circle and unpacking their bags, looking for their supplies. Hitomi was surprised to draw some corner sandwiches and bottled water from her pack. She had expected combat rations. There was even a little bag of cookies. She shook her head. None of this made any sense, but, then again, neither did the whole concept of being randomly abducted and forced to take part in some crazy contest. Things were already strange enough. She looked up, the 'sky' above her convincingly blue, a few clouds lazily crossing it. She knew that the sunlight was fake, that somewhere above their heads the sky became a ceiling of hard metal, but it looked real. She wondered how they had done it. Who ever set this thing up was obviously an advanced civilization. Type II, maybe even Type III. Hitomi got a sinking feeling in her stomach. The twelve of them were competent, sure, but she wasn't convinced that they would be able to overcome a nation-state on her home-world, let alone a society advanced enough to build something like this for entertainment. Perhaps it would be better to just claim a key and escape.

"We haven't found anyone." Misaka said, turning to the others. "They have to be around here somewhere. The enclosure was big, but it wasn't that big, and we're all headed to the same place. We should have run into someone else by now."

"Maybe they got held up?" Hitomi ventured. "I mean, who says that the shadow things are the only creatures in these woods? Or perhaps the other teams moved significantly quicker than us, or took a roundabout path to avoid other teams, or got lost, or anything."

"Yeah, but still. It's been two hours, and we met in about five minutes." Misaka said. "We should have met someone else..."

"You're worried about Uiharu, aren't you?" Twilight said. "That's really what you're getting at."

"Maybe." Misaka huffed. Twilight smiled.

"It's okay. Being worried for friends is reasonable." she said kindly. "If one of my friends were stuck here, I'd tear apart the forest to find them. But I'd also know that they'd be fine, because I trust them. I'm sure Uiharu is more than capable of protecting herself."

"You say that." Misaka said, and the look in her eyes told Hitomi just how not capable of protecting herself Uiharu truly was. "She'll try her best, that's for sure, but I'm not sure Uiharu could defeat a normal, unarmed man, let alone any of these creatures."

"Then Jaune will protect her." Hitomi offered. "He seemed like the type to risk himself defending the 'damsel in distress'."

"Eh heh heh..." Mimi said nervously. "Actually, Uiharu and Jaune are the least combat capable characters in their respective works. Jaune is a bit better then Uiharu is, I guess. He might be able to handle, say, one of those things at a time."

"Oh, thanks." Twilight said dryly as Misaka's face dropped again. "That helped a tonne, Mimi. Good work."

"Hold on." Mimi said, and Twilight rolled her eyes.

"What, was that secretly an encouragement?" Twilight said sarcastically.

"No, I just think I hear something, and would appreciate it if your hatred of me could take backseat to our survival for at least five seconds." Mimi said shortly.

Twilight opened her mouth for a second, then closed it, letting Mimi listen. Hitomi flashed a pentagram, boosting her hearing and scanning around her. She didn't think there was anything out of the ordinary.

"Yeah." Mimi said. "There's definitely some running water. It's not that loud, and doesn't sound very deep, so perhaps a stream or brook within 500 feet."

"500... feet?" Misaka put a hand to her chin, looking pensive. "How big is a foot, again?"

"Uh..." Hitomi cast her eyes upwards for a second. "It's a little less than a third of a meter, right? So 500 feet would be about 160 meters, give or take a few."

"How do you not know what a foot is?" Mimi said, surprised.

"You must be from the United States." Misaka said, shaking her head. "The rest of the world uses metrics, you know."

"None of this is important." Twilight said flatly. "The question is, what's so important about a stream? This isn't even the first one we passed. I've heard maybe two others before it."

"Really? And you didn't think anything strange about it?" Mimi said.

"No." Twilight said. "This is an enclosure made to act like a forest. Forests have streams. It's just another detail."

"Really?" Mimi said. "Nothing strange about it?"

"Oh!" Hitomi said, looking to Mimi suddenly. "You're right, that is strange."

"..." Twilight looked to Hitomi, then to Mimi, then back to Hitomi, before the light went on in her eyes as well. "Well, I'll be." Twilight said. "That is suspicious. And quite clever of you, Mimi."

"What are the rest of you on about?" Misaka said. "It's just a stream."

"Yeah, a steam." Hitomi said.

"You know, with flowing water." Twilight said.

"Drinkable water." Mimi said, prompting.

"..." Misaka looked between the three of them. "You really want me to get this on my own, don't you." she said flatly, and the others nodded slowly. Misaka sighed, looked pensive for a moment, then pounded her fist into an outstretched hand. "Wait!" she pointed at Mimi. "A stream has water! Of course! One of the things they chose to limit our supply of was water. If it was just lying about everywhere, there wouldn't be much point. They have to make it impossible for us to get water for this thing to have the pressing nature they want."

"So a stream becomes very suspicious." Mimi finished. "Exactly."

"So it can't actually be a stream." Hitomi said. "But what is it, then?"

"Only one way to find out." Mimi said. "I think the sound is this way." she waved the others on, and they followed, preparing themselves for what they might find.

What they found was an ordinary looking stream.

"What." Misaka said. "That can't be right."

"Maybe there's something wrong with the water?" Hitomi said. "It could be poisoned or something."

"We have various abilities, from witchcraft to divine magic. I don't think they have anything they could know would poison us all, or that we wouldn't just have some way of purifying. Not to mention that Twilight isn't even in our species." Mimi said. "It's got to be something more basic than that."

Twilight walked up to the stream and stuck a hoof in it, lightly brushing the surface. She withdrew it quickly, screaming in pain, her horn flashing rapidly. There was a few seconds of pause as she went through spasms, then she stood up.

"2 molar Hydrofluoric acid." Twilight said after a pause. "I would advise against touching it."

"Uh, no kidding." Misaka said, looking at the stream with much more apprehension.

"So, streams of Hydrofluoric acid. That sounds lovely." Hitomi said. "Guaranteed to make the sound of running water without providing anyone with anything they can drink."

"What gave you the brilliant idea to stick you hoof in the unidentified liquid, anyway?" Mimi asked Twilight, who was giving herself a more through healing with her magic now that the pain had been taken care of.

"Well, the rest of you didn't seem to be doing anything, so I took action." Twilight said. "It worked, and it only put myself a risk."

"Are you sure about that?" Mimi said, suddenly going quiet. Everyone looked to where Mimi was looking. In the woods, a small group of dark, silver-black two meter tall wolves were gathering. "I think they heard you scream." Mimi said.

"Oops." Twilight said, her horn aglow again as she prepared to defend herself.

"As long as we keep the stream between them and us, we should be okay. I doubt they enjoy HF any more than we do." Misaka said.

"They're two meter tall wolves." Hitomi said, backing up a bit. "I don't think they're going to have much trouble leaping a half meter wide brook."

"Fair point." Misaka said, preparing herself for the attack. The wolves snarled at them, and Hitomi felt her leg throb suddenly with the ghost of her injury. She winced and did her best to ignore it. It was mental, her mind projecting the past onto the present due to the similarity of the situations. Her leg throbbed again, and she felt her knee buckle, almost loosing balance before she managed to regain control. Her eye flickered to her leg for a moment. It was mental, right?

"They're just standing there, growling." Misaka said. "What are they doing?"

Hitomi dropped to the ground, moaning. The pain was sudden and intense, and the others turned to look at her as she struggled to maintain control.

"Shizuki! What's wrong?" Twilight asked, concerned.

"My leg... I got bit there once, about a week and a half ago, by something that looked an awful lot like those wolves." Hitomi said. "It suddenly started hurting again, even though I got it magically healed a week back."

"They're changing!" Mimi said, and the others looked over at the wolves. Hitomi couldn't see as another wave of pain took her. She heard Mimi gasp, and drop to the ground as well, doubling up in pain.

"The creatures are taking the shape of whatever has hurt us the most." Twilight said suddenly. "They must be hurting us through that, somehow." she extended her wings. "We need to stop them before we..." she suddenly tensed, then dropped to the ground. "Misaka, now!" Twilight called, then shuttered in pain, joining the other two on the ground, curled up in her projected agony. Hitomi couldn't see most of what was happening, but she guessed the things would be transforming into whatever had hurt Misaka the most next. Once the four of them were incapacitated, the creatures, whatever they truly were, wouldn't have any trouble taking them.

There was a flash of energy as Misaka unleashed a wave of lightning at the creatures, and Hitomi felt her pain lessen for a moment. Suddenly, she felt power surging back into her. This pain had another memory associated with it, one of her protecting her friend when they really needed it. She drew on that power again, using it to keep the pain at bay, fighting through it as she had before. She heard Misaka gasp. There was another wave of electric power, a slight lessening of the pain again, and then Misaka screamed, dropping as well next to her. Hitomi shuttered, but struggled to her feet slowly. The real thing had hurt worse than this anyway. Her will propelled her through the pain, as she rose to her feet to face the creatures as they approached. They weren't much of anything to look at now, just clouds of dark, multicolored dust. They slowed as she watched them, seeming wary of her. Hitomi raised her arm, pointing at them shakily and deliberately. From her pointer finger a pentagram of emerald light flashed into existence, and she aimed it at the densest group of clouds.

"_Why... fight?_" the cloud said, it's voice broken and scratchy in her head. "_We... stop... pain._" Hitomi felt her leg burn again, but she forced herself to stay standing. "_Why... not... stop... pain?_"

_"You can't hurt me!" _Hitomi screamed. _"Not when I have people to protect."_ her pentagram flashed, and with a flick of her wrist a web of energy cascaded into the approaching cloud. There was a brief silence, and then what sounded like broken laughter in her head. The cloud began to approach again, faster this time.

_"You... may... pass... will... saves..."_ it croaked, "_but... you... have... no... power... girl."_

Hitomi threw a few bolts at it, then a cascade of spectral blades, but nothing seemed to have any effect. The cloud laughed louder in her mind. Hitomi felt the pain getting worse.

"Hey! It's unsporting to attack someone when they're already hurt, you know." A voice said from the far bank, and Hitomi turned her attention to the figures of Star and Lilly before ducking to the ground as Star began to open fire. The cloud turned to the other two, seeming to try to transform, but the bullets were disrupting enough that it seemed unable to maintain control. Hitomi felt the pain lessening, slowly at first but then quicker. The cloud appeared to be shrinking as it was torn at by fifteen shots a second. The volume of fire was great enough to damage even the incorporeal beast. It screamed, they tried to flee. Hitomi felt the pain dissipate suddenly, and the others rose to their feet quickly, looking stunned for a second before regaining their senses and watching as Star reduced the cloud to whips in seconds. Finally, the gunfire stopped. Star slung her machine gun onto her back, dropping her spent ammo belt and walking up to the others. "You all alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, thanks." Misaka said. "That's quite the gun you have there." she seemed wary of the older girl, unsurprisingly.

"Oh, I know, right?" Star said. "Custom. Built it myself. Quite proud of it, to tell you the truth."

"You killed a cloud with it." Mimi said. "You shot a cloud so much it died."

"Yeah?" Star said. "So?"

"It's a cloud." Mimi said. "They usually don't mind getting shot."

"I have yet to find a single enemy that can't be killed with enough firepower." Star said. "Why should a weird cloud-beast thing be any different?"

"O-okay. Sure." Mimi said. "But, like, you shot a cloud to death." she seemed to be having a hard time accepting this fact, from what Hitomi could tell. As for her, it was just another thing to add to a very weird day.

The little girl, Lilly, stepped out from behind her. "I have a suggestion for you four to consider." she said, in a steady voice that made Hitomi feel that she had been through far to much for someone her age. She was only eleven, right? She shouldn't be speaking like this. "I plan on trying to get out of here without use of the keys. I think we should take the fight to the people who threw us in here, instead of destroying each-other. Together, I'm sure-"

"Oh, so you'll join our party then?" Misaka said. "Sorry, not that you speech wouldn't have been lovely, but that's already our plan. No need to bother trying to convince us."

"Well, that makes things easy." Lilly said. "So, that's six of us now. Half the number."

"Any idea how to find the others?" Misaka said. "We've been looking for a while, but you're the first we've come across in two hours."

"You are our first as well." Lilly said. "We don't really have any effective way of tracking the others, as far as I know."

"Well, we could use the band things." Star said innocently. The other five looked at her. She tilted her head slightly. "What?" she tapped the band on her wrist, and the display came up, showing her and Lilly's little status bars. Flicking through it like a touchscreen, she showed the others a little mini-map, little colored dots marking the locations of the other teams. "I found this while looking through the functions of the piece. It only showed Lilly for me to start with, but it flashed to this view about thirty minutes ago." as she spoke, some of the other dots flickered, like they were getting static.

"And you didn't say anything about this before now... why?" Lilly said.

"You seemed like you had a plan." Star said. "Besides, you were telling me off for playing with the thing, so I figured that I'd keep the fruits of my 'play' to myself, if you were going to be so unappreciative."

"Where is team 4?" Twilight asked. "There are no pink dots here."

"Uh..." Star said after a moment. "Well, I'll be. That's right, isn't it? I didn't notice."

"Uiharu..." Misaka said quietly.

"I'm sure they're fine. Maybe they managed to break it after figuring out that it was tracking their location?" Hitomi offered. "It doesn't mean that anything happened to them."

"So. Team 3 is still less than two kilometers from the gate, and team 5 appears to be about a kilometer ahead of us." Lilly said, giving the view a good look over. "We should try to get Team 5 as quickly as possible and head back. I think that should be our next move."

"Should we contact team 3 at all?" Twilight said. "I mean, it's Spring and Crystal. They're the two least trustworthy of anyone here."

"But they're both incredibly powerful." Mimi said. "I've seen Crystal destroy entire military bases when she gets bored, and come out without a scratch on her. _And Spring took her out in one move_. It's going to be hard to control them, sure, but we need them to help us. I wouldn't be surprised if they were #1 and #2 in terms of power in our group."

"I guess Spring will be reasonable, at least. And she almost certainly hates these people more than us right now." Twilight said. "If you're willing to work with Crystal, I guess I can work with Spring. I'm not happy about it, but I'll do it."

"Oh, hell no. We don't work with Crystal. We get her to work at the same thing as us and put a few walls up in the space in between." Mimi said quickly. "Unlike your Spring, who seems to be the lawful evil type, Crystal is distinctly chaotic evil. She will, no question, just randomly kill some of us while working if she gets in the mood, no matter the risk it puts her in. She really can't help herself. I don't know exactly what is wrong with her, but whatever it is, it's really, really wrong."

"Fine, but you get what I mean." Twilight sighed. "I don't want to work with Spring, but I don't think she's just going to turn on us in the middle. She knows she needs us as much as we need her to get out of here. As much as I hate to say it, you're right, they're too much of an asset to let go."

"We'll deal with that later. First, let's catch up with Ruby and Akemi." Lilly said. "They're still on the move."

"Right." Hitomi nodded, and the others seemed to calm down and apply themselves to the task at hand.

"_We should go quiet again." _Twilight said.

"_Oh, a telepathic net!"_ Star said. "_We've got a friend who can do this, too."_

_ "Why did we stop using this, anyway?" _Hitomi asked.

_"It gets taxing for me to keep it open all the time. But now that we need to catch two people who will be suspicious of anyone approaching, making as little sound as possible, especially as little talking as possible, will keep them from evading us for as long as possible." _Twilight said.

"_Then let's catch us a huntress in training and a time-stopping magical girl." _Mimi said. _"What could go wrong?"_

The six began to make their way through the woods, traveling as quickly as they could manage. Their target was moving ahead of them, but at a much more relaxed pace. It took them only ten minutes before they were almost on top of them.

"_I think I see them." _Twilight said. "_Thirty meters ahead of me. They seem to be stopped. Approach with caution."_

Hitomi drew in, following the muffled sound of their voices. After a few seconds, she drew in close enough to hear them.

"-point in looking for them." Akemi said, her tone as neutral as always.

"Don't tell me you're not at least worried for that Shizuki girl. There are three keys, you know. We could find her, and Jaune, and all get out of here." Ruby's voice was almost pleading.

"We need to protect our own interests first." Akemi said. "Forget about the others. Your attachment can only lead to disaster."

"Look at you, talking like friendship was a curse!" Ruby said, exasperated.

"It is not a curse. It is, however, a social structure which confers both strengths and weaknesses to those who have it. In particular, it makes people inside of your group of 'friends' more likely to help you at a cost to themselves, and makes you more likely to help them at cost to yourself. Depending on the situation, this can either be an overall positive or overall negative effect. In a challenge such as this, it is negative." Akemi said. "We have been set in opposition to each-other. If we attempt to help others claim the limited resources available, we hinder our own chances of success."

"But we can't just abandon them." Ruby said. "That would be..."

"We can, and we must." Akemi said curtly, turning on her heal. "I refuse to discuss this with you further, and would appreciate it if you did not bring it up again." she began to walk out.

"Then I'm not coming with you." Ruby said.

Akemi paused for a moment. "I do not need you to succeed in this challenge. You are free to do what you wish." she continued to walk away.

"_Perhaps we should step in?_" Twilight asked.

_"Before they get away, yeah." _Star said. There was a rustling, and Ruby and Akemi turned to face Star as she stepped out of the forest around them. "Oh, hi there!" she said cheerily.

Ruby clicked something off her back, and drew a large red scythe from what appeared to Hitomi as thin air. Akemi activated her shield, disappearing and reappearing just in time for Lilly to drop down on top of her before she could fully secure Star. Lilly trained her duel pistols at Akemi's head.

"No sudden moves. Trust me, I'm faster pulling a trigger than you are starting that shield of yours." Lilly said flatly.

"Star!" Mimi said, stepping out. "Seriously. That was not the way to great someone. I would have gone on the attack if you'd popped out on me like that too."

"You'd have gone on the attack regardless." Hitomi said dryly.

Slowly, the small clearing filled with the eight gathered people. No one spoke. Ruby slowly put down her scythe. Lilly got off of Akemi. Akemi stood up and brushed herself off, looking around at the others.

"Just one question." Akemi said, glancing at Star and Lilly. "How did you manage to stop me so quickly?"

"You can thank Sky for that." Star said.

"We have a friend in our group back where we come from who has a power very similar to yours. We're used to dealing with people who can stop time." Lilly informed her.

"So, what are you going to do with us?" Akemi continued. "I see you already made a group of six. I was worried that someone might. You're already at maximum."

"We were hoping you'd join us." Twilight said.

"The eight of us will stand a better chance of busting out of here than the six of us." Star said.

"Together, we have most skills covered." Hitomi noted.

"The people who threw us in here are the real enemy, not each other." Lilly said.

"And we can't abandon our friends." Misaka affirmed.

"I'm just going along with it because the rest of these idiots are." Mimi said.

There was a brief stretch of silence, in which Akemi and Ruby stared at the others with uncomprehending expressions. Then Ruby smiled wide and clapped her hands together. "Ha. Told you." she said pointedly to Akmei, skipping over the the others. "See? Everyone else is trying to work together. It's just you being suspicious." she nudged Hitomi lightly as she turned to face Akemi with the others. All seven kept their eyes trained hard on her, waiting to see what she would do. She looked around slowly, then sighed.

"Well, it looks like I don't have much of a choice. I can't very well take all seven of you." she said flatly. "Let's break out of here."

There was wild cheering from the others, which Hitomi joined after a moments pause. Akemi rolled her eyes, walking into their circle.

"We'll be fine." Hitomi told her. "We'll make it back, okay?"

"Had a change of heart?" Akemi asked.

"Maybe a little." Hitomi said, nodding. "You're certainly not very _nice_, but I think you're _good_, when you get right down to it. I don't think you want to hurt anyone." she paused. "I'm okay with you shadowing Madoka. I won't try to stop you."

Akemi didn't say anything to that, simply turning to the others as they began to calm down. "So, where do we go from here?" she queried.

"We're off to pick up team 3." Star said. "Then it's on to the assault!"

"Where's Jaune?" Ruby asked suddenly.

"Oh, uh..." Twilight said, looking down. "Well..."

"Team 4's locational markers are not showing. We have no other information." Lilly said. "Any other speculation will only serve to distract us."

Ruby didn't seem too happy with that answer, but she didn't say anything more.

"That seems reasonable to me." Akemi nodded. "I am prepared to handle Crystal again if the need arises."

"And I think I can convince Spring without too much trouble." Twilight said. "So, we're ready, then?"

The others nodded. "Well, onwards!" Misaka said, waving them on, her band displaying the map to get her bearings. "The sooner we get there, the sooner we get to leave."

The return trip was uneventful, which surprised Hitomi. It seemed that most of the creatures in the forest were avoiding them now. Perhaps they didn't want to try to take eight at once. Still, they didn't sight a single creature on their path. Hitomi couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

They found Crystal and Spring quite suddenly. They were sitting with their backs to a tree, not looking at each other. Spring raised an eyelid as the others approached.

"Oh, there you are." she said. "What took you so long?"

Twilight seemed to flush slightly. "Well, you could have gotten up and met us." she said, then shook her head. "Wait, why am I being civil with you?"

Spring got to her hooves, giving the others a tired look. Hitomi honestly believed they had woken her from a nap. Either that, or she was very good at acting. "So, you got most of the others already. I would have expected no less from you, Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight flushed again, turning away from her. "Yeah, whatever." she muttered. "Are you going to help us or not?"

"Well, I don't see why not." Spring said. "After all, I want to put my hoof down the throats of whoever interrupted my glorious return just as much as the rest of you. I could probably get out on my own, but rest of you would get awfully mad at me if I left you here. Besides, I'm hardly stupid enough, or narcissistic enough, to not realize that the rest of you do make my chances of success higher. Figuring out a counter to nine people is much harder than figuring out a counter to one, no matter how powerful the one may be."

"And what about Crystal?" Mimi said.

"Oh, her?" Spring turned. "She's taking a little nap. Should wake up in about three hours, give or take."

"I see." Mimi said. "So, I guess she won't be helping us, then."

"Oh, why would you say that?" Crystal said suddenly. Spring rolled her eyes.

"How long have you been up?" she said flatly.

"Oh, about ten minutes now. But you were so cute sleeping I didn't want to wake you." Crystal said, giggling lightly. "Besides, I already killed you. Twice. I got it out of my system."

"You say that now." Spring said flatly. Crystal giggled.

"So I have issues." she said, pouting slightly. "Doesn't everyone?" she tilted her head slightly. "Besides, you came back to life. Everyone seems to be doing that now. I don't see what you're so upset about."

Spring just rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Oh. My. God." Mimi said, shaking her head. "Those two are perfect for each other."

Spring shot Mimi a scathing look. Crystal turned to Mimi slowly. "Oh, Mimi, you know I have eyes only for you." Crystal said, and Mimi shivered involuntarily.

"Look, this is all nice." Misaka said, stepping up to the front of the group. "But we do want to get out of here at some point."

"Indeed." Akemi said. "We have gathered all whom we can easily locate. I believe we are ready now."

"Okay then." Spring stretched out, then turned to face towards the entrance with the others. "Lets get started."

"What's our plan of attack?" Hitomi asked.

"Well, I was thinking something along the lines of 'blast the wall until it breaks'." Star said. "I mean, we don't need to be subtle. They're watching us, remember? This was 'entertainment' for them. They already know what we're trying to do."

Hitomi gasped. "Of course. That's what has been unsettling me! We've met no resistance this whole time. You'd think, if we were doing something they didn't want, they'd have stepped in by now."

"So, what your saying is that they expected this?" Misaka said.

"That, or they're absolutely certain we'll fail for some reason." Hitomi said. "Either way, there's something they know that we don't, and I don't like it."

"Well, there's only one thing for that." Ruby said. "We'll just have to show them how stupid it is to underestimate us!"

The ground shook slightly, and a crashing sound was heard from behind them. The ten turned slowly, peering out over the trees beyond. They couldn't see anything for a moment, the world quiet around them. Then the ground shook again, and a flash of gold caught the light, above the height of the trees.

"Right. They did have a dragon, didn't they." Mimi said flatly.

"Formation!" Spring shouted, and everyone looked at her strangely. She sighed. "Worth a shot. Okay, then, everyone for themselves!" she streaked into the air, blasting down at it with a wild flurry of aquamarine bolts. She disappeared into the distance.

"Say, why don't we wait about a minute to see if she retreats first?" Star said.

"Oh, that would give me plenty of-" Crystal started, but Akemi already had her tied up before she could get farther than that. She rolled her eyes. "Plenty of time to clear the area. Or not. We can fight in the thick of the woods if you prefer."

"Don't let her out." Lilly said.

"I was not planing on it." Akemi affirmed.

There was a roar, a sound like a rocket engine, and then silence. Ten seconds later, Spring landed next to them, her coat lightly singed.

"Well, that didn't go so well." she admitted. "I think I managed to tick it off, and that's about it. The damn scales have some kind of magical resistance to them, so my straight attacks don't work."

"How about your shields?" Twilight inquired.

"They held, but that fire is something else." Spring shook her head. "They won't hold for long."

"Can you clear the area of trees?" Star said. "We're going to need the space."

"Now, that's something I can do." Spring's horn flashed, and the ground vibrated as the trees disintegrated into small five-centimeter cubes. She frowned. "Trees aren't supposed to do that. They're supposed to uproot."

"The trees are fake. We should have expected as much." Misaka said. "Everything here is fake."

"Well, it makes this easier, actually." Spring grunted for a moment, and every tree within fifty meters exploded into the cubes, which she easily stacked in one corner of the enclosure.

The ground trembled again, and this time they saw the trees knock over, the dragon's head rearing above them.

"Oh, yeah. Perhaps I should mention." Spring said as it drew near. "The dragon is about thirty meters tall."

Hitomi didn't really have time to react to that, as the dragon stepped into the clearing with a defining crunch, roaring down at the gathered group. Nothing happened for about two seconds. Next to her, Hitomi heard the loud cocking of a gun, and Star started screaming, the air erupting with the sparks of her weapon. The tide broke. Hitomi leaped sideways, getting out of the direct line of attack while attempting to entangle the beast in as many nets of power as she could manage. There was a sound like rolling thunder as twin arcs of light struck the side of the dragon. It screeched, blowing a wave of flame at them from its mouth. Before impact, dual shields of aquamarine and violet blanketed the group, deflecting the blast.

"We have incoming!" Mimi shouted, pointing to the shadow creatures who were now gathering around them in waves.

"On it." Akmei said. She turned to Lilly briefly, who responded with a curt nod. The two girls both drew double pistols and went back to back, tearing apart the creatures while the other seven dealt with the dragon.

Hitomi's nets seemed to be having some effect on the dragon. It was slowing down, unable to shake them. She tried hitting it with a charged burst, but it didn't seem to have any effect. Spring was right. It looked like magical attacks didn't work against it. The dragon swiped its claws through her nets, tearing them apart. Hitomi growled frustratedly.

"No, you're doing great!" Twilight said. "Just hold it for a second longer..." her horn lit for a moment, and a bolt of water condensed out of the air, slamming into the dragon. There was an aquamarine flash, and the water turned to ice, the dragon howling out as it expanded between its scales.

There was another flash of light, and the dragon wheeled wildly, letting loose another burst of flame at Misaka. Akemi appeared briefly in front of her, then the two were on the other side of the clearing. Spring and Twilight were trying various magic-based physical attacks, though it seemed that each one only worked once before the dragon became immune. Hitomi began to feel her power failing. Lilly screamed out as she was overtaken by the shadows. Star cursed as her gun jammed. Ruby's scythe clanged uselessly against the dragon's scales, and she turned to back up Lilly. Mimi bellowed, throwing another railgun-burst at the dragon, Misaka following with another of her own. They weren't loosing, not yet, but they really weren't making any progress, and they were starting to get worn down.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Crystal yelled, ripping herself free from the burning bonds that had been holding her. "You all are pathetic." she extended the blades from her fingernails, and rushed the dragon. It swiped at her and she cut off its claws with one strike. Swinging up onto its arm, she sliced it over and over as she ran up the length of its body, jumping onto its stomach and sliding down its front, leaving eight fifteen meter long gashes in its flesh. The dragon screamed out in horrible agony, then let a burst of flame at Crystal.

Spring put up a shield right before impact. As the dragonfire raged behind her, Crystal turned to the others.

"You keep talking about teamwork and how wonderful it all is." she said. "So why aren't you using any?" she tilted her head. "Not even I can take this thing on my own. Everyone doing their own thing is just going to get us nowhere."

Everyone looked between themselves for a second. The dragonfire stopped, and Crystal smartly walked to the remainder of the group before she could be singled out for attack.

"Retreat!" Twilight yelled. "We need a few seconds to plan!"

"On it." Spring's horn flashed, and they found themselves some few hundred meters away instantly.

"Okay." Star looked around. "What do we know?"

"Magical attacks don't work." Twilight said.

"Though it's not immune to magic itself, because my nets still function." Hitomi noted.

"The only physical attacks that are strong enough to get through its scales are the railguns and Crystal's blades." Misaka said.

"So, then, I guess we put Ruby, Lilly, and Star on shadow defense. Spring and I will continue to provide distraction. Shizuki will continue to slow it down as much as she can, and Misaka and Mimi will give it everything they have. When an opening presents itself, Crystal can jump in and give it hell. Akemi stays as support and goes wherever she's needed." Twilight said.

"On the count of three." Spring said, preparing to teleport them back. "One... two..." Hitomi felt herself go numb as she let her power take her. "Three!"

Hitomi screamed, bursting into form three as she let loose a wave of power, creating a net large enough to pin the dragon fully to the ground. Mimi grabbed Misaka and whispered something to her, and the two of them began to prepare something. "Give us twenty seconds!" Mimi shouted.

"On it!" Crystal yelled, giggling as she leaped across the clearing and began to slice into the dragons legs, letting the blood spray her as she danced around its clumsy strikes. Every time the dragon managed to break part of her net, Hitomi threw a new one on, creating a patchwork network which slowed the dragon by nearly fifty percent. Twilight and Spring easily deflected the flame, flying around it in circles and blinding it with flashes of light. Ruby was obviously in her element, having no trouble slicing her way through tens of the shadow creatures. Star and Lilly hit anything that got behind her as she tore through the mass, the three of them repelling the whole of the army of shadows. Akemi flitted in and out, providing necessary support where she was needed.

"Ready!" Misaka yelled. "Cover yourselves!" she picked up a coin and flicked it into the air, like usual. Mimi dropped down to one knee in front of her. There was contact, and the coin shot forward. As it flew, the white light burst into a rainbow pattern as Mimi accelerated it further through her magnetic bubble. Like a spiral of pure energy, the particle beam struck the dragon square in the chest, knocking it backwards fifteen meters. The impact blew a half-meter wide hole half-way through the dragon, and it shrieked in agony. Mimi grinned.

"Extend the magnetic barrel by ten meters, and you get ten times the speed." she said. "And ten times the speed means a hundred times the force." then her eyes rolled into her head, and she collapsed, unconscious.

"Mimi!" Misaka yelled, catching her as she fell.

"We don't have time!" Hitomi said. "The dragon's still-"

She didn't have the time to finish that statement, as the dragon let loose another burst of flame. Spring and Twilight had been too distracted by the previous attack to react in time. Hitomi screamed, then saw everything take a shifted view.

"Come on." Akemi said. "Keep holding my hand."

Hitomi nodded, walking out of the way with Akemi. "What about the others?" she asked.

"They will have to deal with it themselves." Akmei said shortly. "I am only helping you because-"

"My death would cause Madoka undue stress. I know." Hitomi sighed. "I don't know why that's so important, but I know."

Akemi let time retake its course, and the burst of flame hit the others. There was a second of silence, then Misaka stood up, her clothes charred but seeming otherwise unhurt.

"Don't you know?" she said. "And I can't believe I forgot this until now, but flame is a charged plasma."

The dragon heaved back again, preparing to torch them once more. Misaka put out her hand, and the flame balled up inside the dragons mouth, forcing its way back down the dragon's throat. The dragon gave a furious howl, attempting to retreat.

"This is it!" Twilight yelled. "It's trying to get away! We're hurting it! Let's finish this!"

Hitomi took her cue. She pulled her nets tight around the dragon, and they began to glow with bright emerald flame. The dragon found itself entirely unable to move as she held it. "You have fifteen seconds!" Hitomi yelled.

Star pulled out a lever on her gun, firing a rapid selection of high-caliper shots into the air at reduced velocities. They burst mid-flight, turning into a cloud of over five hundred marble sized chunks. Spring and Twilight dived, Spring picking up Misaka and Twilight picking up Akemi. They flew them twenty meters into the air, dropping them onto a magical platform, the two girls standing hand in hand as the cloud of shot reached its peak and began to fall. Akemi activated her shield. Misaka turned to the others, smiling. "And this is why you don't see shows where the person with time control has access to high damage outputs." she said, turning to the cloud of debris just as it reached head-height. There was a pause of silence, as if the universe was holding its breath. Then five hundred railguns went off simultaneously, and the dragon broke into tiny pieces. Hitomi saw the light through her arm, and the heat gave her mild burns at a distance of forty meters. Akemi and Misaka alighted on the ground, Misaka grinning, Akemi's expression unsurprisingly blank.

"We did it." Twilight said, landing next to them. "We killed the dragon."

"Woo!" Star yelled. "That was awesome! Can we do that again?"

"Mimi's unconscious, I've used most of my power, Shizuki's used most of her power, Akemi's used most of her power, and we still need to tie up Crystal again before she realizes the rest of us are tired." Misaka said. "I don't think we _could_ do that again."

"Oh, you have that right." Hitomi said, dropping out of form three and nearly falling over. "I'm barely able to stand at this point."

"That really was something, though, wasn't it?" Star sighed. "Six people contributing to an super final attack."

"And we couldn't have done any of it if Mimi hadn't helped us weaken it beforehand." Lilly said. "And without Ruby, we would have been fighting on two fronts instead of one. Really, the only person we could have done without was me. If any of the rest of you nine were missing, we would have lost."

"Though Misaka MVP'd hard there in the end." Ruby said. "That was amazing."

"If Shizuki hadn't been able to hold a dragon for fifteen seconds on her own, I wouldn't have been able to make the shot." Misaka said.

"I wouldn't have been alive long enough if Twilight and Spring hadn't deflected all of the dragons attacks." Hitomi said.

"And none of us would have been able to do any of this if Crystal hadn't called us out." Twilight said.

"See, I was useful." Crystal said.

"Yeah, thanks." Spring said, hitting her with another paralysis spell. Crystal just rolled her eyes.

"So, what now?" Hitomi asked.

"Well, we should get a little rest, and when we've recharged again we'll see if the wall can take Mimi and Misaka's combined Gauss cannon attack." Spring said. "It's the highest output single attack that we have... actually, it's the highest output single attack I've ever seen, to be frank. If they can't punch through the wall, we don't have much of a chance anyway."

There was a rumble in the ground, and Hitomi looked over at the source of the disturbance. Her eyes widened. "No..." she said numbly.

There were three more dragons coming, each as large as the first. Flanking them were two large helipads, guns trained on them. Misaka dropped to her knees. Twilight seemed shocked. Spring sighed. Star cocked her gun and stood in front of Lilly. Ruby dropped into a combat stance.

"We give it all we have." Ruby said. "We can't lose anything from trying. Get up, Misaka. We can still do this."

"**OH, I'M SORRY."** a voice called from the helipad, a voice Hitomi recognized as the man from earlier. **"YOU TEN HAVE EXCEEDED ALL EXPECTATIONS, I'LL GIVE YOU THAT. UNFORTUNATELY, THE SHOW MUST GO ON, AND WE CAN'T HAVE YOU ESCAPING US JUST YET." **The dragons roared, and the guns began to whir to life. **"PARTY'S OVER, GIRLS!"**

Hitomi closed her eyes. This was it. Better to go out in a blaze of glory then die screaming. She readied herself for a final assault, drawing into herself for any power she might have left. She opened her eyes, looked straight at the helipad, into her oncoming death...

**"YEAH, YOU GOT THAT RIGHT!"**

Another voice, young and female and strong, blasted over the air. No one said anything for a second. The world went quiet, the dragons stopped fidgeting, the hum of the helipad engines became the only noise. Misaka started to laugh, slowly at first but building in volume. The sky went dark, and emergency lighting flooded the entire dome.

Misaka took three steps out in front of the rest of the group. "Hey, Uiharu, what took you so long?"

**"THESE ADVANCED ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS HAVE GOOD FIREWALLS."** Uiharu said defensively. **"OH, AND I OWN 51% OF YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM NOW, IN CASE YOU'RE CONFUSED." **she informed the man. **"I COMMEND YOU ON YOUR CYBER-SECURITY. IT TOOK ME ALMOST TWO HOURS TO GET THIS FAR." **The helipads turned, pointing at the dragons. They opened fire suddenly and destructively, the dragons screeching as they were reduced to slag from the violence of the attack. When they had finished, one of the helipads turned and destroyed the other. **"ALL ABOARD!"** Uiharu said, and the others climbed aboard their newly acquired transport.

"This is impossible." The man's voice said from the much smaller speakers inside of the vehicle. "How can you possibly own 51% of our computer system? The code isn't even written with symbols you recognize!"

"53% now. It's much easier once you're already over the 50% mark." Uiharu said. "And I did say it took two hours."

"So, should we come pick you up?" Twilight asked.

"Is Jaune okay?" Ruby said, forcing her way to the speaker.

"Oh, hi, Ruby!" Jaune called. "Yeah, I'm fine. You know, this Uiharu is a little bit scary with computers."

"Uh, yeah, why don't you come get me." Uiharu said. "I think they've tracked where I am now. I see things starting to close in." there was a brief pause. "Please, hurry!" the markers for team 4 appeared suddenly on the map.

"On it." Lilly grabbed the controls.

"Wait, we're letting the eleven year old fly it?" Twilight asked.

"I know what I'm doing." Lilly said. "Trust me." she pulled up on the joystick, and the craft rose gracefully into the red sky. Deftly, she flicked through the switches across the cockpit and the craft started moving smoothly through the air.

"As soon as they get you from that terminal, you're going to lose control of the system." the man said over the speakers. "And one helipad is nice, but we have over thirty-five million of them in storage in this cite. We've converted the whole planet into a gaming center. You twelve don't stand a chance against a whole world."

"Eleven. We left Crystal behind." Lilly said.

"Whatever. Even worse odds, then." the man said. "You can't possibly beat us."

"But we don't have to." Uiharu said. "I've already downloaded a map of the outside, and there's a universal transmat less than fifteen kilometers from the exit. If we can get to it, we can go home. That's all we care about, you know. We're not trying to kill you all, we're just trying to get out of here."

"And you think it isn't guarded?" the man said.

"No, but I think the ten of them killed a dragon in less than two minutes with no technological support. You may be underestimating us." Uiharu said.

"You don't know what you're getting yourselves into, girls." the man snarled. "We have ways to make-" the voice cut out.

"Finally tracked down where he was broadcasting from." Uiharu said. "A little peace at last."

"I see you." Lilly said. Hitomi peered over the edge of the helipad, finding Jaune and Uiharu standing near a computer terminal on the wall. They waved the others down, and Lilly was careful to make sure the Helipad crushed most of the shadow creatures to clear a path for them. With a few last frantic lines of code, Uiharu separated herself from the terminal and ran with Jaune to the open doors of the helipad. Lilly took off again as soon as they were inside.

"I've got the code to open the door here." Uiharu said, typing into the helipad's computer. "I've set it to open for us upon approach. The code should hold them for a few minutes, but I can't promise much. We need to get there fast. He was right, now that I'm away from the terminal, it won't take them very long to undo what I've done."

"Full speed ahead, then." Lilly said, gunning it to the entrance. "The doors will open automatically, right?"

"It should." Uiharu said. "Wait, Lilly, you don't intend-"

Lilly pressed the accelerator down harder. There was a hiss as the door opened, and one second later, the helipad flew through the little gap and into the lobby. It was too large to fit down the hallway, the engines popping off and the sound of metal scraping on metal filled the air as they slid through the narrow hall. Lilly jumped back from the cockpit as they smashed through the first hallway door, the windshield shattering. They weren't going quite fast enough to break through the second door, being stopped by it with a gut-wrenching lurch. After a moments recovery, Lilly turned to the others.

"That went well, all things considered." she said. "And I even got us through the first door."

"Never do that again." Twilight said.

"I doubt I'll have the chance." Lilly said.

"Ugh..." Mimi said, blinking herself awake. "What did I miss?"

"I'll explain later." Misaka said.

Star climbed out of the windshield, straining against the partly busted door. Hitomi was about to tell her to stop when there was the sound of rending metal, and she forced it open. "Phew." she said. "That was tougher than I'd like. Well, come on."

The others followed her out into the hall beyond. There were little cell locked rooms here, just like the ones the twelve of them had been trapped in. They looked empty. Hitomi turned to Uiharu. "How many halls are we going to have to go through?" she asked.

"There are twenty of them like this, and then there stop being doors." Uiharu said. "So we still need to get through eighteen doors before we're out."

"How?" Ruby asked. "Nothing we have can scratch the metal."

"Crystal could cut it." Mimi said. "We'd have to go and get her, and somehow get her to just cut the doors..."

"Not really an option anymore." Spring said. "Not without transport."

"Wait." Hitomi said. "I might have something." she closed her eyes, reaching out with her power along her magical connection. She'd never tried this before, but from what Alice had said, it should work. She hoped it worked.

"What?" Jaxx said, popping into existence, then shaking his head and rubbing against Hitomi. "Oh, it's good master Hitomi!" he said, purring.

"Jaxx, I need your help." Hitomi said.

"Anything I can do for my master." Jaxx said, purring loudly.

"Can you get Alice to send me something that will fool an electronic door into thinking we have access rights?" Hitomi said. "A fake key-card, or broadcaster, or something."

Jaxx looked around the room. "What have you gotten yourself into?" he asked. "This is a different time-space, isn't it?" he chuckled to himself briefly. "Oh, you'll be dealing with plenty of that later. No need to start early."

"Jaxx, please, it's important." Hitomi said. "I need you to stay on task, okay?"

"I'll see what I can do." he said.

"Thank you." Hitomi said, and Jaxx disappeared. She sighed. "Familiars. At least he's earnest."

Akemi seemed concerned, giving Hitomi a strange look for a moment. "Familiar?" she asked.

"Yeah, a witch's familiar." Hitomi said. "I'm a spectral witch." Akemi seemed startled by that statement. Hitomi's eyes furrowed, and she looked at Akmei confusedly. "Is there something wrong with that? I'm a good witch."

Akemi didn't say anything to that.

Jaxx reappeared, a key-card on a lanyard around his neck. "She says this should work. Oh, and you say hi." Jaxx said. "Now, if you'll excuse me." he disappeared, leaving the key-card behind. Hitomi picked it up.

"Utility magic comes in handy." she said, swiping it at the door. It opened for them. "Come on." Hitomi said, waving the others on.

They passed through a few more doors, not really meeting any resistance on their way. Hitomi's key-card had no trouble opening every door they came to, despite the fact that none of the doors actually had key card readers. It took them only three minutes before they were in the open halls, able to transverse the great facility at will.

"The transmat is this way, I think." Uiharu said. "We're not that far. If we hurry, we could be there in about two hours."

"Two hours?" Ruby said. "That's plenty of time for things to go wrong. Anyway we could speed that up?"

"Not that I..." Uiharu started, then Mimi tapped Ruby's shoulder.

"Like that?" she asked. Hitomi turned to see where Mimi was pointing. There was what looked like a little trolley making its way down the hall. "I think we could take it."

"Hey, what are you people doing?" a voice called from the trolley. "You're not suppose to be here!"

Hitomi, Ruby, and Mimi exchanged looks, then nodded. Ruby sprang forward, Hitomi summoned her spectral blades, and Mimi trapped the trolley in a magnetic lock, holding it. Ruby smashed through one of the windows, laser blasts shooting out from the ray guns the men carried as they tried to hit her. Hitomi sent her blades in through the hole. There was a few flashes of green light, and then the laser blasts stopped. Ruby opened the door after a second.

"Well, get in." she said.

The others shrugged and climbed inside. After tossing the bodies of a few of the men out of the windows, there was just enough space for them all to fit, though it was very cramped. Mimi waited until everyone was inside, then released the trolley. It trundled back into action, but it was moving altogether far faster than they could have walked. Uiharu accessed the control panel and reprogrammed the device to take them to the transmat. The device helpfully told them that they had an ETA of about ten minutes.

Slowly, the walls of the facility around them began to lose their color, turning white. They passed fewer and fewer doors as they made their way, and objects outside of the trolley began to lose some definition. Hitomi peered out, confused.

"Is it just me, or is there something weird going on with the walls?" Twilight asked. "Actually, everything outside looks weird."

"Yeah, I thought so too." Misaka said.

Hitomi nodded, as did some of the others. She felt the trolley slowing. After a few seconds, it came to a gentle stop. The world was completely silent outside. The door slid open with a light hiss, and the little overhead screen told them that they had reached their destination.

Cautiously, the eleven stepped out into the white expanse beyond. They couldn't make out the edge of whatever room they were in, nor could they locate the passageway they had entered by. There was no horizon, the sky and ground the exact same color, the light emitting from seemingly everywhere with equal strength. Hitomi took a few steps out from the trolley, looking around curiously. The others, with the exception of Spring and Akemi, did much the same. Spring seemed to be thinking, and Akemi just had the same blank hundred meter stare that she always had on, appearing disinterested in their situation. Hitomi looked down at her hand. It was weird to see it like this, with no shadows. It seemed so artificial.

"Oh, I'm so sorry about this." a voice said from behind her. Hitomi turned to see a boy and a girl standing about ten meters from them, having appeared in the middle of the room from thin air. The boy had spoken, from what the voice had sounded like. He appeared to be seventeen or eighteen, with dark brown hair and eyes and a black hoodie on. He had a scruffy beard, and a fairly neutral expression. There wasn't anything particularly special about his appearance. He looked quite average and unimportant, though not off putting in any way. The girl, on the other hand, was certainly exceptional in appearance. She was stunningly beautiful, with white hair and golden eyes. She looked a bit younger than the boy, perhaps sixteen, and she was smiling kindly.

"Who are you?" Misaka asked.

"This is Purity Winters." the boy said. The girl bowed lightly. "As for me, I don't tend to put my real name online, so you can call me 'the author'."

There was a brief silence. Star tilted her head slightly. "Wait, what?" she asked.

"Sorry, sorry. This must be a bit much for you." the boy said. "Let me explain. This, the whole scenario that you've been dealing with, is an April fool's day chapter. I'm adding it to my fan-fic because I wanted to. I'm not really very funny, so my only option was to go for ridiculous and hope for the best. But, knowing me, one thing led to another, and it quickly got out of hand. This, what is going on right now, is me ending the chapter. You see, we just passed 19,000 words for this chapter. It's almost a third as long as the whole of _A Different Kind of Spark_ already. That's a bit much for an April fools chapter, I feel. Besides, it's already 11:30 PM on March the twenty-fifth. I have to call it somewhere. I was going to have a final showdown at the transmat, and introduce Kar-Vitsatal, and have a big flashy victory where you get to mess with the people who did this stuff, but I don't have the time, and this has already run too long."

"Wait, we're in a fan-fic?" Twilight said. "What even is a fan-fic?"

"You're a fan-fic writer?" Mimi said. "I'm surprised we haven't had lesbian kissing fests yet."

"Not all fan-fic writers are like that." the boy said, blushing.

"Who, may I inquire, is this a fan-fic of?" Akemi asked.

"_A Different Kind of Spark_, a Puella Magi Madoka Magica fan-fic with Shizuki Hitomi as the main character." the boy said.

Purity tapped his shoulder. "Um, n-not to interrupt you, but is this really the time for explanations? Aren't we running long already?" she blushed. "Sorry. That was rude."

The boy looked down. "Sorry." he sighed. "Guilted by my own characters. Just my luck."

"So, what are you?" Misaka asked Purity. "I mean, other than associating yourself with Mr Thinks-He's-God over there, you seem nice."

"I'm..." Purity said, looking down. "I'd rather not say."

"She's a character in _The Academy Project_, my first fully original work." the boy said. "Isn't she great? I had just finished watching _The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya_ at the time, and I needed a new character. So I made the cutest, sexiest, shyest, kindest, and meekest little all-powerful reality warper in existence." the boy hugged her, and she squeaked. "Isn't she just adorable?"

"W-we just passed 20,000 words." Purity said. "I know you said you wanted to keep it below 20K." she looked down. "Not to stop you or anything."

"Right, right, sorry." the boy said. "I can talk for hours about my works, you know." he straightened. "But we do need to get this over with. Purity, can you do the honors?"

"O-okay." Purity stepped forward. "All I have to do is erase their memories and send them home with my power, right?"

"Yeah. Should be easy for you. You're the second most powerful character I've ever created, so you shouldn't have too much trouble." the boy said.

Purity nodded, walking across up to Mimi, who was the closest. She tapped her on the forehead, and she collapsed, then faded slowly from existence. Purity moved along slowly, tapping the people in line one by one, sending them home. She came to Spring, who leaned down. She tapped her, and nothing happened. Purity cocked her head, then tried again. After a few more attempts, the boy shook his head. "I should have never given her eidetic memory. Just send her back. I don't really write _Test of Time _anymore anyway, so there shouldn't be that much of an issue." Purity nodded, and Spring faded, a half-miffed half-amused look on her face. Eventually, only Twilight, Hitomi, Purity, and the boy remained.

"Now, you two." the boy said. "Twilight, I'm sorry that I didn't write you very well. In my defense, it was literally the first thing longer than five pages I had ever written. I hope you can forgive me." Twilight seemed troubled, but she nodded after a moment. He turned to Hitomi. "Hitomi. I'm sorry for putting you through such a terrible situation. It's going to get worse before it gets better. But, I promise, it will get better. I'm a strong believer in the idea that people need to earn their happy endings, but I do like happy endings." Hitomi nodded.

"Well, off with you, my two little heroines." the boy said. "Take care of yourselves."

Purity tapped them on the forehead, and all was dark.

* * *

If you want to read the much, much shorter second part of this story, you can find it at www . /story/208443/14/test-of-time-arc-1-awakening/chapter-128-april-fools-day-2015


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